Japan's standing shrinks as S. Korean trade partner: report

SEOUL, Nov. 19 (Yonhap) -- Japan's standing as one of South Korea's top trading
partners has dwindled as a result of South Korean moves to diversify its export
and import markets, a government report said Thursday.
The Korea Customs Service said South Korea's trade with Japan rose 70.6 percent
from 2000 to US$89.2 billion last year but Japan's proportion of the country's
overall exports and imports dwindled 5 percentage points and 6 percentage points,
respectively, to 7 percent and 14 percent during the eight-year period.
During the January-October period, South Korea's trade deficit with the
neighboring country, which rose to an all-time high of $32.7 billion last year,
shed 22.3 percent from the same period last year.
The customs office attributed the drop in Japan's portion out of South Korea's
overall trade to Seoul's effort to find new overseas markets for its products and
measures to diversify where it buys foreign goods.
Local companies have made forays into Middle Eastern, Latin American and
Southeast Asian markets in recent years, and have taken steps to import more
intermediate goods and manufacturing machinery from North America and Europe.
Efforts to introduce South Korean-made products have also reduced Japan's overall
clout.
"In 2002, capital and intermediate goods such as industrial components made up
57.6 percent of all Japanese imports but the ratio has fallen to 46.4 percent in
2008," the customs service said. But South Korea's imports of both raw materials
and consumer goods from Japan have moved up in the same period.
yonngong@yna.co.kr
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