Seoul (VNA) – Export turnover of t he Republic of Korea (RoK) in the first seven months of this year rose 10.1 percent on-year to 18.02 billion USD, according to the Korea International Trade Association (KITA).

The amount made it become the world’s third largest importer of the RoK after China with 68.52 billion US and the US with 39.63 billion USD.

During the January-July period, the RoK’s shipments to Vietnam accounted for 6.4 percent of the Northeast Asian country’s total export value, up three fold from 2 percent in 2009.

The sharp increase was attributed to the bilateral free trade agreement which became effective late last year, promoting trade exchanges between the two countries that were seen a strong rise following the FTA between the RoK and ASEAN, to which including Vietnam is a member in 2007.

The increasing trend was recorded amidst the continuous falling in RoK’s exports since early 2015.

In the reviewed period, the RoK’s export value to China and the US decreased by 5.4 and 13.5 percent, respectively.-VNA