Korea, One of Top 10 Trade Countries in the World in 2005

Korea will become one of top ten trade countries in the world in 2005. Korea’s export and import ranked 12th in the world last year.

According to the Korea International Trade Association (KITA)’s research report ‘World Trade and Korea, 2000’, Korea`s export ranked 12th and import ranked 13th in the world trade last year. The Korea’s export in world trade increased from 2.6 percent to 2.7 percent, and import increased from 2.0 percent to 2.6 percent.

The KITA report forecasted that since Korea’s export rate has increased between 1996 and 2000, Korea will become one of top ten trade countries in the world in 2005 by catching up with Netherlands, Hong Kong, and Belgium, which has1.8 ~ 3.8 % of increasing rate.

Mexico (13th), Taiwan (14th), and Singapore (15th) are catching up with Korea in terms of export size. KITA’s report said, ‘Although Taiwan (7.3 percent) and Singapore (3.9 percent) are not Korea’s competitors, Mexico will compete with Korea since Mexico’s export rate (20.3 percent) has been higher than that of Korea.

KITA’s report also said that China ranked 7th in exports and 8th in imports in world trade.

Park Joong-Hyun sanjuck@donga.com