SEOUL: The Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy of South Korea announced that South Korea’s investment in the United States has almost tripled since the implementation of the ‘KORUS FTA’ and the cumulative investment has almost doubled during the same period.
South Korea and the United States commemorated the 15th anniversary of their FTA on March 15.
According to the ministry, South Korea’s investment in the U.S. totaled US$36.97 billion in the period of 2012 to 2016, up 60% compared to 2007 to 2011. Last year, the investment reached a record-high of US$12.9 billion.
According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce, the investment added up to US$22.8 billion from 2012 to 2015 whereas it stood at US$8.8 billion from 2008 to 2012. South Korea’s investment in the U.S. totaled US$40.1 billion between 1987, when records began, and 2015. The figure for last year is not available yet.
Back in 2011, the amount had been US$19.9 billion. “The BEA conducts the calculation based on the investment actually arriving in the U.S. and, as such, its calculation is less than the South Korean government’s,” the ministry explained, adding, “The cumulative investment since the implementation of the KORUS FTA based on BEA data is estimated at more than US$50 billion.”
South Korean companies’ investment in the country was mainly directed to the manufacturing sector including automobile, consumer electronics, semiconductor and petrochemical.
Since the implementation of the free trade deal, South Korean companies have created more than 10,000 new jobs in the U.S. based on the deal. The average annual salary of the jobs they provide in the country is US$920 million, higher than those provided by any other Asian country.
In the meantime, the United States’ investment in South Korea more than doubled based on the FTA as well. Specifically, that amount was US$20.2 billion in 2012 to 2016 and US$9.5 billion in 2007 to 2011. In 2015, it hit a record high of US$5.48 billion.
Fields of investment have expanded from finance, insurance, wholesale and retail and electrical and electronics to cover information technology, biotech and so on, too. For instance, Amazon invested US$140 million for cloud business in South Korea in 2013. Microsoft made an investment of US$120 million last year.
