Shipping containers are piled up for export at a port in Busan in this photo taken in September 2023. Yonhap By Yi Whan-woo Korea is still heavily reliant on the United States and China regarding exports although the level of reliance has been reduced recently, according to experts. The experts urged Korea to speed up the diversification of its export destinations, noting that trade protectionism in both the U.
S. and China has been growing and that these actions add additional concerns regarding the increasingly fragile global supply chain. In its recently published report containing summaries of various government policies and legislation, the National Assembly Research Service pointed out that the U.
S. and China combined accounted for 40.4 percent of Korea’s total exports in 2020.
The rate dropped to 37.9 percent in 2023. Nevertheless, Korea is ranked second after Canada among the world’s top 10 exporting countries when it comes to dependence on a handful of countries for outbound shipments.
“In that regard, Korea is being urged to lower such a rate considering that the world’s two greatest economies are increasingly advocating protectionism and that Korea is highly exposed to risks concerning the fragile supply chain,” the National Assembly Research Service said. It suggested capitalizing on the popularity of Korean pop culture to further diversify its export markets in Southeast Asia, the Middle East as well as Central and South America. Ku Ki-bo, a professor at.
