General

In 2022, South Korea's overall export scale continued to expand due to the direct and indirect impact of the entry into force of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP), although the import volume of crude oil, natural gas and coal was dragged down by the explosion of the three major energy sources and the trade balance turned into a deficit. Especially with the growth of exports to ASEAN and Japan and other RCEP member countries, customs data show that South Korea's export volume broke a record last year and became the sixth largest exporter in the world, reaching a new level compared with 2021.

RCEP officially entered into force on January 1, 2022, while for South Korea, it entered into force on February 1. According to the prediction of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development at that time, when the RCEP takes effect, the total intraregional trade volume will increase by about 42 billion US dollars. Among the 15 countries that have joined the RCEP, South Korea will become the third largest beneficiary country, and the intra-regional trade volume will increase by about US $7 billion, second only to Japan's US $20 billion and China's US $11 billion. From the actual results, South Korea's exports to the ASEAN region alone increased by more than US $16 billion last year.

Driven by positive factors such as the entry into force of RCEP, South Korea's exports made encouraging achievements last year. According to customs data, South Korea's total exports reached 683.9 billion US dollars last year, breaking the record of annual exports. Compared with 2021, the ranking of global export volume rose by one place, and again rose to the sixth place in the world, second only to China, the United States, Germany, the Netherlands and Japan, and the position of a major exporter was further consolidated.

According to customs data, from a regional perspective, the total exports of South Korea to China, ASEAN and Japan among the RCEP member countries reached about 311.4 billion US dollars, accounting for almost half of the total exports of South Korea. Among them, the largest export target country of South Korea is still China, with an export value of US $155.81 billion; The region with the fastest growth of export scale is ASEAN, with the export volume reaching 124.95 billion US dollars, the highest since the statistics, and the growth rate also reached 14.8%. Benefiting from the preferential tariff reduction brought by the entry into force of RCEP, South Korea's exports of semiconductors, monitors, petroleum products and other major export products to ASEAN continued to grow. According to customs data, on the basis of the high growth of exports to ASEAN in 2021, South Korea has updated its highest export value for two consecutive years.

Another important value of RCEP for South Korea is that it has opened a breakthrough for South Korea to develop exports to Japan. Although tariff reduction is a slow and long-term process and the effect is somewhat sluggish, South Korea's exports to Japan have achieved growth for the second consecutive year. Customs data show that last year's exports amounted to 30.63 billion US dollars.

Japan is the main export market of South Korea's agricultural products. The entry into force of RCEP further broadens the living space of South Korea's agricultural products in Japan. According to RCEP, Japan has opened up Korean agricultural and sideline products such as sake, rice wine, sake, pears, mushrooms, etc. These products can be easily bought in convenience stores and supermarkets on the streets of Japan, and even set up Korean sake counters in some supermarkets. With the popularity of Korean dramas popular in Japan, Korean alcohol products have gradually become popular products.

In order to maximize the benefits that RCEP brings to domestic enterprises, the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Resources of the Republic of Korea, the Customs Office, the Korea Trade and Investment Revitalization Commune, the Korea Trade Association and other specialized agencies jointly issued the "Common Guide for the Use of RCEP", which details the use strategy of the RCEP rules, the precautions during the verification of origin, and the application strategies of other countries with examples in various fields.

In addition, the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Resources and the Korean Trade and Investment Promotion Commune, in order to make it easier for Korean enterprises to enter the newly opened Japanese market, opened the "RCEP Flexible Use Support Center" in Tokyo, Japan, in November last year to provide export enterprises with advisory services such as certificate of origin, customs clearance, removal of non-tariff barriers, etc.