South Korea's Trade Surplus with the U.S. Drops to 12th Place

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] In the first half of this year, South Korea's ranking in the scale of trade surplus with the United States among various countries dropped two places from last year to 12th.

According to data from the U.S. Department of Commerce on the 6th, South Korea's goods trade surplus with the U.S. in the first half of this year was $10.267 billion, down 8.3% from the same period last year ($11.194 billion). Meanwhile, the overall U.S. goods trade deficit decreased by 5.1%, from $412.238 billion to $391.049 billion during the same period.

This was due to South Korea's goods imports from the U.S. ($26.328 billion) decreasing by 5.9%, while goods exports to the U.S. ($36.595 billion) fell by 6.6% compared to last year. Accordingly, South Korea's ranking in the scale of goods trade surplus with the U.S. dropped two places from 10th last year to 12th in the first half of this year.

Based on the first half of the year, South Korea's ranking fell from 6th in 2016 to 10th in 2017, then to 12th in 2018, rose back to 10th last year, but slipped again this year.

The country with the largest trade surplus against the U.S. in the first half of this year was China, with a surplus of $131.717 billion. From the U.S. perspective, about one-third of the trade deficit was generated from transactions with China. However, due to the U.S.-China trade dispute, China's surplus decreased by 21.0% compared to the same period last year.

Mexico, a neighboring country, ranked second in the trade surplus with the U.S. Switzerland took third place, rising six places from 9th in the first half of last year.

Experts believe that the strong trend in gold prices had a considerable impact. According to foreign media, the volume of gold and silver exported from Switzerland, a traditional European gold refining hub, to the U.S. increased fivefold in the second quarter. In terms of Swiss francs, the value increased by as much as 650%.

Other countries in the top 10 rankings for trade surplus with the U.S. included Ireland, Vietnam, Germany, Japan, Malaysia, Italy, and Taiwan.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.