South Korea will be one of ‘hardest hit economies’ if trade war breaks out
Senior official from Seoul warns that exporters of intermediate goods will be hit hard, while retailers in China worry about an economic slowdown
South Korean businesses are bracing for an impact from US tariffs aimed at China, a senior trade official from Seoul has warned.
Kim Yun-hee, a senior trade commissioner from the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) office in Beijing, said South Korean companies had raised concerns over the trade frictions, including firms that did not have products on the US tariff list.
“South Korean exporters depend heavily on China and the US. It will be one of the hardest hit economies in the world if an all-out trade war breaks out,” Kim said.
“Many of these companies will be hit indirectly because they sell intermediate goods to China and are linked to US companies in China,” Kim said, adding that concern was growing among exporters.
China and the United States accounted for 24.8 per cent and 11.9 per cent, respectively, of South Korea’s total exports last year, according to the Korea International Trade Association (KITA).
In the worst-case scenario of a full-blown trade war, South Korean exports would drop by 6.4 per cent – an estimated loss of US$36.7 billion, according to a KITA report.