The Vietnam-Korea Free Trade Agreement (VKFTA), which took effect on December 20, 2015, has played an important role in attracting investments from the South Korea to Vietnam and helping the Southeast Asian nation integrate deeper into the regional economy.
Currently, South Korea is Vietnam’s second largest trading partner and also the second largest import market after China. However, this is the partner that Vietnam is suffering the largest amount of trade deficit.
In 2018, Korea was also Vietnam’s largest trading partner with a total bilateral trade turnover of more than USD 65.8 billion, of that exports reached USD 18.24 billion; imports reached USD 47.6 billion.
Vietnam – South Korea import – export turnover period 2013 – 2018
Unit: Billion USD
| Year | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 |
| Export | 6.62 | 7.14 | 8.92 | 11.41 | 14.82 | 18.24 |
| Import | 20.71 | 21.76 | 27.63 | 32.16 | 46.73 | 47.60 |
| Total trade | 27.33 | 28.9 | 36.55 | 43.57 | 61.55 | 65.84 |
| Trade balance | -14.09 | -14.62 | -18.71 | -20.75 | -31.91 | -47.56 |
(Source: Vietnam Customs)
The history of trade relations between Vietnam – South Korea recorded that trade deficit of Vietnam with this market reached the highest level in 2017, when the Vietnam’s trade deficit rose up to about $US 32 billion, increased by 54.8% over the year of 2016, and approximately equaled to the import rate of Vietnam from Korea in 2016.
Vietnam’s exports to South Korea
Unit: USD
| Commodity | First 10 months of 2019 | Compared with the same period of 2018 (+/- %) | ||
| Volume (ton) | Value (USD) | Volume | Value | |
| Total export turnover | 16,691,067,116 | 9.6 | ||
| Phones of all kinds and parts thereof | 4,504,668,838 | 19.12 | ||
| Textiles and garments | 2,923,484,309 | 5.13 | ||
| Computers, electronic products, spare-parts & components thereof | 2,442,260,070 | 14.67 | ||
| Machinery, equipment, tools and instruments | 1,312,423,821 | 28.06 | ||
| Other commodities | 921,535,694 | |||
| Wood and wooden products | 658,699,063 | -16.17 | ||
| Seafood | 640,160,558 | -8.74 | ||
| Foot-wears | 491,233,064 | 21.81 | ||
| Still image, video cameras and parts thereof | 326,364,939 | 11.97 | ||
| Means of transportation, parts & accessories thereof | 316,839,626 | 50.8 | ||
| Fibers and yarns of all kinds | 117,292 | 279,288,274 | -15.13 | -18.87 |
| Base metals and products thereof | 204,859,832 | 35.1 | ||
| Plastic products | 170,392,886 | 22.51 | ||
| Iron and steel products | 148,107,677 | 13.54 | ||
| Wires and cables | 142,782,539 | 5.55 | ||
| Iron and steel | 193,439 | 131,567,968 | -15.71 | -14.16 |
| Handbags, wallets, suitcases, headgear and umbrellas | 113,431,087 | 2.72 | ||
| Crude oil | 221,694 | 108,712,586 | 35.64 | 8.22 |
| Vegetables, fruits | 107,399,490 | 12.34 | ||
| Textile, leather and footwear materials & auxiliaries | 82,735,408 | -9.12 | ||
| Chemical products | 72,721,240 | 9.17 | ||
| Rubber products | 57,054,408 | 23.55 | ||
| Chemicals | 55,138,446 | -12.79 | ||
| Rubber | 37,228 | 53,631,012 | 28.62 | 25.32 |
| Coffee | 27,074 | 52,725,501 | 2.58 | -6.44 |
| Tyre cord fabrics and other fabrics for technical uses | 52,188,127 | 36.75 | ||
| Petroleum | 69,453 | 43,675,263 | -25.56 | -37.54 |
| Confectionery and cereal products | 36,749,948 | -8.71 | ||
| Toys and sports requisites, parts & accessories thereof | 29,610,467 | -38.76 | ||
| Ceramic products | 26,208,272 | 46.88 | ||
| Cassava and products from cassava | 86,181 | 25,274,925 | 5.28 | 5.68 |
| Glass and glassware | 24,660,089 | -72.77 | ||
| Coal | 136,987 | 23,238,428 | -63.81 | -51.72 |
| Paper and products from paper | 20,734,445 | 8.14 | ||
| Animal feed and aminal feed materials | 19,316,756 | -20.48 | ||
| Plastics materials | 8,996 | 16,083,529 | 1.87 | -12.53 |
| Precious stones, Precious metals and articles thereof | 15,423,550 | 7.53 | ||
| Bamboo and rattan products | 14,944,566 | 0.99 | ||
| Pepper | 4,197 | 11,581,760 | 3.27 | -18.54 |
| Fertilizers | 31,314 | 7,477,376 | 7.16 | -9.68 |
| Ores and other minerals | 20,617 | 5,681,280 | 20.35 | -49.83 |
(Source: Vietnam Customs)
Vietnam’s imports from South Korea
Unit: USD
| Commodity | Compared with Sep 2019 | Compared with the same period of 2018 | ||
| Oct 2019 | First 10 months of 2019 | |||
| Total import turnover | 4,128,877,943 | 1.1 | 39,426,345,575 | 0.54 |
| Computers, electronic products, spare-parts & components thereof | 1,259,509,858 | -16.31 | 14,612,630,752 | 2.23 |
| Machinery, equipment, tools and instruments | 484,309,887 | 13.06 | 5,139,237,923 | 1.4 |
| Phones of all kinds and parts thereof | 707,474,006 | -12.61 | 4,824,109,104 | -1.31 |
| Fabrics | 178,453,890 | 44.22 | 1,660,927,455 | -6.1 |
| Plastic products | 148,660,361 | 7.88 | 1,516,774,676 | 2.55 |
| Plastic materials | 152,940,372 | 22.68 | 1,350,440,078 | -2.33 |
| Petroleum | 205,580,709 | 90.67 | 1,330,925,810 | -22.43 |
| Other base metals | 131,064,493 | 12,72 | 1,227,004,058 | -2.76 |
| Iron and steel | 157,887,756 | 45.47 | 1,185,174,594 | -0.99 |
| Other commodities | 109,896,423 | -1.73 | 1,124,130,592 | |
| Auto parts and accessories | 111,620,098 | 21.88 | 987,928,997 | 42.21 |
| Textile, leather and footwear materials & auxiliaries | 60,042,158 | 36.43 | 603,154,870 | -6.41 |
| Chemical products | 67,818,318 | 10.71 | 592,205,766 | 6.65 |
| Iron and steel products | 66,419,630 | 24.64 | 580,775,246 | 5.45 |
| Still image, video cameras and parts thereof | 34,532,112 | -8.64 | 355,331,622 | -13.64 |
| Chemicals | 40,529,901 | 30.52 | 349,586,046 | -1.69 |
| Paper | 26,984,686 | 12.99 | 239,823,241 | -1.15 |
| Rubber | 20,696,389 | 19.84 | 187,628,586 | 4.53 |
| Other base metal products | 18,289,983 | 7.95 | 182,934,801 | -1.01 |
| Other petroleum products | 15,596,218 | -3.41 | 150,047,492 | 0.97 |
| Fibers and yarns of all kinds | 16,406,376 | 22.68 | 147,949,473 | -11.15 |
| Wires and cables | 15,656,101 | 12.9 | 145,022,796 | 4.62 |
| Pharmaceutical products | 12,883,946 | -31.29 | 143,674,471 | 9.9 |
| Rubber products | 9,138,515 | 308 | 95,683,459 | -0.71 |
| Motor cars (CBU) | 12,658,735 | 63.13 | 73,024,154 | 201.17 |
| Glass and glassware | 4,521,972 | -17.62 | 68,183,443 | 7.32 |
| Seafood | 4,682,642 | 8.5 | 62,966,087 | -0.27 |
| Odoriferous substances, cosmetic, toilet preparations | 6,514,779 | 20 | 55,438,116 | 37.99 |
| Precious stones, Precious metals and articles thereof | 5,569,745 | 20.57 | 52,344,341 | 9.83 |
| Products from paper | 5,321,151 | 44.26 | 52,307,337 | -2.44 |
| Domestic electrical appliances and components thereof | 5,270,583 | 32.64 | 47,740,864 | -6.79 |
| Other food preparations | 4,090,392 | -3.3 | 39,901,879 | 33.83 |
| Animal feed and animal feed materials | 2,637,049 | -30.9 | 39,472,681 | -4.09 |
| Other means of transportation, parts & accessories thereof | 5,592,608 | 87.98 | 37,696,502 | -1,31 |
| Fertilizers | 1,096,907 | -41.08 | 32,944,427 | -20.87 |
| Confectionery and cereal products | 4,735,204 | 73.3 | 30,059,927 | 21.27 |
| Vegetables, fruits | 3,541,235 | -18.63 | 26,785,929 | 36.03 |
| Insecticides and insecticide materials | 2,680,650 | 24.79 | 20,582,558 | -39,98 |
| Wood and wooden products | 991,243 | -41.43 | 14,247,487 | 139.64 |
| Milk and milk products | 1,332,920 | 39.33 | 10,609,758 | 1.93 |
| Ores and other minerals | 1,581,027 | 56.37 | 10,526,095 | -15.06 |
| Cotton | 616,755 | 136.36 | 6,481,139 | 27.15 |
| Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) | 2,390,749 | 750.88 | 4,361,935 | 6.34 |
| Vegetable and animal oils and fats | 448,486 | -0.25 | 3,934,072 | 11.04 |
| Pharmaceutical materials | 210,922 | -11.08 | 3,634,936 | -16,8 |
(Source: Vietnam Customs)