KITA: VN to become RoK’s second largest importer by 2020

VGP – Viet Nam will surpass the U.S. to become the second largest importer of the Republic of Korea (RoK) by 2020 thanks to the Viet Nam-RoK Free Trade Agreement (VKFTA), according to the report of the Korea International Trade Association (KITA) on March 20.

March 21, 2018 11:19 AM GMT+7

Illustration photo

In 2017, Viet Nam overcame Hong Kong (China) to rank third among the RoK’s largest importers, after China and the U.S., jumping three steps from 2014.

The KITA supposed that the two nations’ trade value will exceed US$100 billion by 2020. The RoK’s exports to Viet Nam accounted for 8.5% of the Southeast Asian nation’s total import turnover in 2007 and the figure set a record to 22.1% in 2017.

As the VFFTA come into effect in December 2015, the RoK’sexports to Viet Nam rose 60.5% while the nation’s imports from Viet Nam inclined 61%.

Despite decreases in the RoK’s total export turnover in 2015 and 2016, its exports to Viet Nam saw respective increases of 24.2% and 17.5%.

In 2017, the RoK enjoyed the trade surplus of US$31.7 billion with Viet Nam.

By Thuy Dung