HCMC – Vietnam had a trade deficit of US$34.26 billion with South Korea last year, the highest trade deficit with a foreign trade partner in the year, according to the Vietnam News Agency.
In 2022, Vietnam exported around US$26.72 billion worth of goods to South Korea and spent nearly US$61 billion on imports from South Korea, according to the South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE).
A MOTIE official said Vietnam has emerged as a manufacturing powerhouse of multinational companies among the ASEAN nations.
South Korea is the third largest trade partner of Vietnam, after the U.S. and China, according to data from the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade in early December 2022.
Between January and October, Vietnam’s major exports to South Korea were phones and phone parts, textiles and garments, and computer and electrical components. Each generated over US$1 billion in the country’s export revenue.
Conversely, there were 10 groups of items that Vietnam purchased from South Korea costing more than US$1 billion each, including computers, cameras and petroleum products.
