[Monitor] Korea-US trade volume expands 32% since FTA

The South Korea-US free trade agreement -- which went into effect 2012 -- has led to an increase in trade volume by 32 percent, data from the Trade Ministry and Korea International Trade Association showed.

Bilateral trade increased from $101.8 billion to $135.2 billion last year, even though Korea’s overall international trade volume dropped 8.3 percent.

Automakers and chipmakers gained the most from the trade deal over the eight years, with the volume of auto exports to the US increasing 50 percent and chip shipments more than doubled.

Korea posted a trade surplus of $11.4 billion with the US in 2019, down 17 percent on-year.

(khnews@heraldcorp.com)