Vietnam – South Korea import-export turnover

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)