Well-known Chinese news site Sohu recently reported that, based on data that the World Trade Organization (WTO) released on September 19, South Korea’s export volume between January and July of this year enjoyed a year-over-year growth rate of 16.3 percent, reaching US$328 billion. This rate is the highest among the world’s top 10 largest export countries, and happens to be double China’s number. Ironically, the high growth was achieved during a period when China has been heavily boycotting South Korean products, mainly due to China’s unhappiness of the Deployment of the U.S. THAAD missile defense system. In the meantime, China’s export growth rate (8.3 percent) was below the average of the 70 primary export countries in the world. Experts expressed the belief that South Korea’s strong export recovery was based on the global economic recovery as well as the unit price increases of Korean products. The author of the article suggested that foreign investments play an important role in the Chinese economy. Boycotting foreign products may impact China’s own position in the supply chain.
Source: Sohu, September 23, 2017
http://www.sohu.com/a/194022552_651779