Boycott slows down … Last year’s trade deficit with Japan exceeded $ 20 billion

[사진=게티이미지뱅크 ]

The Japanese boycott, which began in earnest from 2019, is again in the form of a slowdown. Korea’s trade deficit with Japan in 2020 was found to widen again compared to the previous year.

According to the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy on the 2nd, last year, Korea posted a trade deficit of $ 2.84 billion in trade with Japan. This is an increase of $ 1,168 million from $ 1.96 billion the previous year. It is an analysis that Corona 19 also affected this. As the crown’s situation worsened, Japanese exports declined and imports of Japanese consumer goods increased.

According to the 2020 import and export statistics from the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy, the export volume to Japan was $ 25.80 billion. This is a decrease of 11.8% compared to the previous year. On the other hand, the volume of imported goods from Japan to Korea remained unchanged even at $ 4.52 billion.

Japan is the number one country in Korea’s trade deficit. In trade with Japan, Korea has run a deficit of $ 20-30 billion per year since 2004. Then, in July 2019, when a boycott began due to Japanese export regulations, the trade deficit for that year decreased significantly. At that time, it posted a deficit of $ 19.16 billion.

By category, exports of petrochemical products to Japan decreased 25.1% year-on-year and steel (-23.3%), auto parts (-34.9%) and petroleum derivatives (-32.5%) also showed negative significant. Demand for cars and construction in Japan is partially recovering, but was still affected by being lower than last year. The negative impact of Japan’s domestic demand caused by Corona 19 also affected Korea’s low exports.

On the other hand, imports from Japan increased in the second half. As for the rate of increase and decrease of monthly income, it continued to decrease in April-August of last year, then returned to an increase of 0.6% in September, and then increased to 4.6% in October, 15.9 % in November and 18.7% in December.

This is due to the weakening of the boycott movement in Japan and the strengthening of promotional events for Japanese products. In particular, demand for beer and cars, which were the main targets of the boycott movement, appears to be slowly recovering.