South Korea’s trade surplus with the United States sharply decreased in the first half since U.S. President Donald Trump came into office.
According to the U.S. Commerce Ministry on Sunday, the country’s trade surplus with the United States came to eleven-point-two billion U.S. dollars in the first half, down 31-point-nine percent year-on-year. It’s the largest first-half drop since 2010.
The country’s exports to the United States slightly decreased from 36-point-five billion dollars to 35-point-six billion dollars, but its imports from the United States surged by 21-point-eight percent to 24-point-four billion U.S. dollars during the period.
South Korea ranked sixth among ten countries with the highest trade surplus with the United States last year, but slipped to tenth this year.
India, Germany and Malaysia also saw their trade surpluses with the United States decrease nine-point-seven percent, five-point-five percent and three-point-eight in the first half, which were all much lower than the comparable figure for South Korea.