Minister of Industry summons export officials amid 12-month trade deficit: "Monthly inspections will be conducted"

Meeting of Export and Investment Officers from 19 Ministries

Lee Chang-yang, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy, urgently convened export and investment officers (at director-general level) from 19 ministries on the 2nd to seek measures to address the trade deficit that has persisted for a year.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced that on the same day, under the chairmanship of Minister Lee, an emergency 'Export and Investment Officers Meeting' was held at the Government Seoul Office Building with director-general level export and investment officers from 19 ministries in attendance.

Minister Lee Chang-yang of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy is speaking at the Emergency Economic Ministers' Meeting held at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul on the 3rd. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

In his opening remarks, Minister Lee stated, "Although South Korea's trade deficit has decreased to $5.3 billion, less than half compared to January, the current economic conditions remain severe due to external factors such as the global economic downturn and high interest rate trends, and internal factors including continued large-scale energy imports, labor-management instability, and delays in revising the 'Restriction of Special Taxation Act' to increase the tax credit rate for investments in national strategic technologies."

He added, "We must make every effort to achieve this year's export target of $685 billion," emphasizing, "The government will focus on investing 1.5 trillion won in export support budgets in the first half of the year and will strive to provide close support for trade finance worth up to 362.5 trillion won and Middle East cooperation projects." Minister Lee also urged each ministry to discover new promising export items and strengthen field-oriented policy efforts to achieve export targets that are set higher than before.

The export and investment officers from each ministry attending the meeting reported on their major support achievements and future plans. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy plans to hold a monthly export status review meeting chaired by the minister to share the implementation performance of export targets by ministry and collaboration results.

According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Korea Customs Service, the trade deficit recorded $5.3 billion last month. The trade deficit has persisted for more than 12 months from March last year to February this year, marking the first time in 25 years since January 1995 to May 1997. Due to sluggish semiconductor and exports to China, export volume was $50.1 billion, down 7.5% compared to a year ago, marking a decline for five consecutive months.

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