Most exporters see no improvement in 2022 trade situation: poll
Container ships are loaded with cargo at Busan New Port, Jan. 1. Yonhap
Nearly 90 percent of South Korea's exporting companies expect no improvement in the global trade situation in 2022 compared with last year a poll showed Thursday, due mainly to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The survey of 300 exporting firms showed 55 percent of respondents anticipating this year's world trade conditions to be similar to those in 2021, while 37 percent said they would take a turn for the worse.
Only 14.3 percent forecast an improvement.
The survey was conducted by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), the country's largest business lobby, from Dec. 17 to 22.
About half of the companies cited the prolonged coronavirus pandemic as the main reason for their pessimistic view. It was followed by global supply chain disruptions (19.7 percent) and rising prices of raw materials (10.4 percent).
To cope with the situation, the companies said they would seek alternative supply chains and supplement existing ones (40.6 percent), tap into new markets (31.3 percent) and secure advanced technologies (14.7 percent).
The findings showed that firms hoped the government would make efforts to respond to global supply chain disruptions and promote economic security, while bolstering free trade deals.
Some 75 percent of the respondents said there was a need for South Korea to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a trade deal involving 11 nations to which Seoul has recently vowed to seek admission.
The CPTPP is the renegotiated version of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) led by the former U.S. President Barack Obama administration and signed by 11 countries, including Japan, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Mexico.
In 2017, then U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of the TPP, widely deemed a key counterweight to China's growing economic clout. (Yonhap)