Last Year, South Korea's Trade Surplus with the U.S. Ranked 14th... Down Two Spots

Export Value Ranks 7th, Import Value 5th... China Is the Largest Trade Surplus Country with the US

The Busan New Port terminal, piled high with import and export cargo, brightly illuminates the night sky to continue nighttime operations. South Korea surpassed $640 billion in annual export value in 2021, setting a new record high. Since recording its first $100 million in 1964, the country exceeded $10 billion in 1977, $100 billion in 1995, $600 billion in 2018, and this year surpassed $640 billion, marking a new milestone in 66 years of trade history.
/Busan=Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyunjung] South Korea's ranking in trade surplus with the United States for goods fell two places last year, recording 14th place. The largest trade surplus country with the US was China.

According to data from the US Department of Commerce on the 13th, South Korea's trade surplus with the US for goods last year was $29.183 billion (approximately 35 trillion KRW), a 16.3% increase from the previous year. However, since this did not reach the average trade surplus growth rate of countries trading with the US (18.4%), the surplus ranking dropped two places from 12th in 2020 to 14th last year.

Canada rose from 15th to 8th place during the same period, and Switzerland climbed from 11th to 5th. Japan, like South Korea, fell two places from 5th to 7th.

South Korea's exports to the US increased by 24.8% to $94.955 billion, but imports from the US rose by 29.1% to $65.772 billion, with the import growth rate surpassing exports. The ranking for export value to the US remained 7th, the same as the previous year, while the import value ranking rose two places to 5th.

The country with the largest trade surplus in goods with the US was China, with a surplus amounting to $355.32 billion. This accounts for about one-third of the total surplus ($1.078368 trillion) recorded by approximately 230 countries trading with the US last year. China's export growth rate to the US was 16.5%, while the import growth rate was even higher at 21.4%.

It appears that China's imports from the US increased significantly following the Phase One trade agreement signed between the US and China in January 2020.

At that time, China agreed to purchase an additional $227.9 billion worth of US goods and services in 2020 and $274.5 billion in 2021. However, recent analyses suggest that China did not fully comply with the Phase One trade agreement.

According to the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE), a US think tank, China's compliance rate was only 57%. By sector, agriculture had the highest compliance rate at 83%, followed by manufacturing (59%), services (52%), and energy (37%).

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