Korea’s performance of high-tech product exports saw different results in the U.S. and the Chinese markets. 

The share of Korea’s high-tech product exports to the U.S. saw a steady increase whereas the gap between Korea and Taiwan - the number one high-tech product exporter to China - widens in the Chinese market. 

Next-generation industries, including aerospace, system semiconductor and pharmaceutical production, should be encouraged to reinforce and boost their export capabilities. 

As the competition between the United States and China is accelerating to secure a favourable position in cutting edge industries, a report claimed that such a move is affecting Korea’s share of high-tech product exports in the U.S. and China.

This report titled, “The trend of Korea’s exports to the U.S. and Chinese high-tech product import markets and its implications” was released by the Institute for International Trade under the Korea International Trade Association (Head: Sanghyeon Cho) on July 22. The report analyzed that Korea’s share of high-tech product exports started to change in the U.S. and China as the two countries started to scale down reliance on each other’s high-tech industries and diversify import channels to third countries ever since the outbreak of a trade war between the two countries.

According to the report, the share of Chinese high-tech products imported into the U.S. declined by 9.1%p during the course of four years from 2017 to 2021. However, the share of Vietnamese and Taiwanese high-tech product imports to the U.S. significantly increased by 4.3%p and 3.4%p respectively during the same period. Although Korean-made high-tech product imports into the U.S. only slightly increased by 0.7%p, Korea became the sixth largest high-tech products seller in the U.S., which used to be the eighth largest seller.

Similarly, the share of American high-tech products imported into China has seen a continuous decline whereas a greater share of Taiwanese and Vietnamese high-tech products is being imported into China. From 2017 to 2022, the share of U.S.-made high-tech products imported into China decreased by 2.7%p, while the share of Vietnamese and Taiwanese high-tech products imported into China increased by 5.4%p and 2.9%p respectively. This clearly indicates China has switched overseas suppliers of high-tech products. Meanwhile, despite Korea managing to maintain its ranking as the second largest high-tech product supplier for China after Taiwan, the gap in the share of Taiwanese-made high-tech products in China and Korean-made high-tech products in China has widened significantly between 2017 and 2021 from 1.8%p to 9.3%p.

Minwoo Kim, a Head Researcher at the Institute for International Trade under the Korea International Trade Association mentioned, “As the trade war between the U.S. and China accelerates, we are both witnessing opportunities and structural crises in the U.S. and China the two biggest markets of cutting-edge industries”. The researcher stressed, “In the middle to long term, it is crucial to build up capabilities in the system semiconductor sector that cover a full range of production from designing to packaging that is akin to the capabilities owned by Taiwan and take aggressive actions to expand the scope of next-generation industries to aerospace and pharmaceutical production.”