South Korea’s exports of health industry items topped ten billion U.S. dollars last year, bringing the related trade balance into the black for the first time.
 
According to data released by the Ministry of Health and Welfare on Thursday, the nation’s exports of medicine, medical equipment and cosmetic products amounted to roughly ten-point-two billion dollars last year, up around 19 percent from 2015. Meanwhile, imports of such products reached ten-point-one billion dollars or 110 million less than exports.
 
Out of such exports, beauty products took up the largest portion standing at nearly four-point-two billion dollars. That’s up more than 43 percent from the previous year.
 
Despite the conflict over the THAAD deployment, China was the largest importer of South Korean cosmetics.
 
South Korea’s exports of cosmetics products to China grew 33 percent from 2015 to amount to nearly one-point-six billion dollars last year or around 38 percent of total cosmetics exports.