The government says although South Korean exports to China shrank in the past year, the fall in exports benefitting from the Seoul-Beijing free trade agreement(FTA) narrowed.

The Trade Ministry and the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency released trade figures with China on Monday ahead of the one-year anniversary of the FTA's effectuation on Tuesday. 
 
The ministry said South Korea’s exports to China fell ten-point-nine percent to 122-point-four billion dollars the past year. However, it was quick to add that exports of items that benefited from the pact only saw a decline of four percent while items excluded from the deal saw exports plunge by nearly 13 percent.
 
The ministry said though South Korea’s exports to China fell in terms of value, in terms of quantity, they surged more than eleven percent. The share of South Korean products in China’s import market, meanwhile, remained high at ten-and-a-half percent.

The ministry also cited that following the FTA effectuation, China’s investments in South Korea, which mainly centered around the real estate and finance sectors, extended to other fields such as the content, entertainment and electric car industries.