Read the full story in The Korea Times
Nobody really ever wins in a trade war, and they have collateral damage just the same as conventional warfare. In the developing conflict between China and the United States, South Korea will certainly be caught in the crossfire.
Korea is a nation heavily dependent on trade and exports, so a downturn in global trade could be devastating to the nation’s economy. Unfortunately this is getting closer and closer to the reality of the situation, as more tariffs are imposed and more trade agreements pulled out of every day by the world’s superpowers that have the ability to sway the international economy. The Trump administration continues to declare tariffs on China in hopes to the square the United States’ trade deficit, and they are not going unanswered by Beijing. This doesn’t only hurt China and the United States though, because as their economies lag so do their imports, and by extension Korea’s exports.
The Korea Times writes this piece from an angle of concern about the Korean economy. These concerns do seem substantiated though, and are backed up with pertinent export and import statistics. One the stands out is that Korea exports 29% of its intermediate goods to China. That is an awfully large chunk of the national economy to be put in jeopardy. They also note that because Korea does not export the same kinds of goods as China or the United States, they will not benefit from any “trade diversion.” This article does not seem heavily politicized as it is about foreign administrations, and the majority of statistics are referenced.