Seoul and Washington signed their bilateral trade deal in 2007,... which went into effect in 2012.
Today marks six years since the FTA was adopted.
Taking a look at the numbers for us... is our Kim Hyesung.
It's been exactly six years since the South Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement entered into force on March 15th, 2012.
According to Seoul's Trade Ministry, bilateral trade has increased steadily, amounting to 119-point-three billion U.S. dollars in 2017, up nearly nine percent on-year.
The U.S. remains South Korea's second largest exporting country after China, accounting for over eleven percent of the country's total trade last year.
Exports to the U.S. amounted to 68-point-six billion dollars, led by petrochemical goods, computers and steel pipes, but Korea's top three exporting goods like vehicles and wireless devices dropped compared to the previous year.
Korea is the U.S.'s sixth largest trading partner.
Imports from the U.S. increased over 17 percent on-year amounting to 50-point-seven billion dollars in 2017, led by goods like semiconductor manufacturing equipment, LPG and meat.
Since the trade deal went into effect in 2012, annual trade growth between the two countries recorded two-point-eight percent.
Korea's trade surplus with the U.S. increased for four years from the establishment of the FTA but started to decrease from 2016.
In 2017, trade surplus slumped by over 23 percent on-year.
As for services trade, it recorded 43-point-two billion dollars in 2016, similar to 2015, and Korea recorded a service trade deficit of nearly 14 billion dollars, mainly on intellectual property.
But with President Trump threatening to revise or withdraw from the FTA last year, complaining about the trade deficit, the two countries launched talks earlier this year about a possible amendment to the deal.
The third round of talks is scheduled to be held in Washington on Thursday local time.
Kim Hyesung, Arirang News.
