무역의날 기념 한국 수출규모, 한계, 해결방안 정리

For export powerhouses like South Korea, it's quite ordinary to designate a national day to celebrate the country's trading prowess.
To mark the occassion, our Kim Ji-yeon provides an in-depth anlysis of the nation's trade environment and the challenges that lie ahead.
South Korea's outbound shipments have hit a lot of milestones this year.
For the second straight year,... South Korea's trade volume has surpassed one-trillion U.S. dollars.
The country is expected to top 600-billion dollars in exports for the first time ever this year as well.
Semiconductors, machinery and petrochemical exports increased this year compared to last year... while outbound shipments in the display and telecommunications industries dropped on-year.
Not everyone is enjoying the fruits of this success... because most of the outbound shipments are related to the IT and electronics... which aren't labor intensive... so the link to employment is weak.
And recent data out of the Bank of Korea shows facility investment actually dropped on-quarter in Q3.
"The machinery used by Korean conglomerates, which make up most of the country's facility investments, are not produced by local small-and-mid-sized companies but are imported from overseas."
The country's heavy reliance on trade for growth has its drawbacks.
Uncertainties stemming from rising trade protectionism are becoming a major risk... especially as nearly 70-percent of South Korea's yearly gross domestic product currently depends on its leading trading partners -- China and the U.S.
The intermediary goods South Korea ships to China... that are used to make goods for export to the U.S. will be the hardest hit from a resumption of the Beijing-Washington trade war.
Although a temporary truce has been forged... the tit-for-tat tariffs are viewed by some as merely a cover in the fight for hegemony in the economic, technological and defense sectors... as China challenges the U.S.
For this it's advised for Korea to join with other countries to empower the World Trade Organization in the face of rising trade disputes... including those related to industrial subsidies... and tariff threats,... especially those coming from the Trump administration.
Kim Ji-yeon, Arirang News.