SEOL: Exports to China have risen despite fears that its unofficial boycott of Korean products would hit them hard. China remains the top importer of Korean products, and new data suggests Korea’s economy is robust enough to weather economic retaliation from abroad.
According to the Korea Customs Service on Monday, exports to China declined for three months after Seoul’s decision in July 2016 to let the U.S. deploy a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense battery here, but have increased for the last 13 months.
Although the growth is lower than the 17.2 percent rise in Korea’s overall exports, Korea still robustly weathered the campaign.
A huge role was played by an explosive growth in shipments of high-tech products including semiconductors and precision machinery as well as intermediate goods like petroleum and petrochemical products.
One industry insider said, “A complete boycott of Korean products would be suicidal since China’s economy is still highly reliant on manufacturing, and halting imports of Korean intermediate goods would have brought China’s factories that churn out finished products to a grinding halt.” This is especially true in the areas of mobile phones and television sets.
But as long as Korea relies on China for a quarter of its trade, the “China risk” will loom indefinitely. Big individual exporters like Hyundai were badly affected, while Lotte closed down its entire chain of Lotte Mart in China.
Prof. Chung In-kyo at Inha University, said, “The lessons we can learn from the THAAD spat is that China is capable of taking economic retaliatory measures against its neighbors based on its interests and that Korea is no exception. China is a very important market, but we must lower our expectations and ensure that we do not become overly dependent on that market.”
UPS Acquires Sandler & Travis Arm to Bolster Customs and Trade Advisory.
BRASILIA: In a move that United Parcel Service Inc. said positions it as a “the global customs broker of choice,” and reflects an environment of mergers in divergent enterprises, UPS announced on Monday that it acquired the highly regarded Sandler & Travis Trade Advisory Services (STTAS), the world’s largest independent provider of global trade management services.
“UPS customers tell us they are looking for a full suite of brokerage services, including trade management and advisory services, from a partner that can help them on a global basis,” said Jim Barber, president of UPS International. “Combining Sandler & Travis Trade Advisory Services with our existing UPS Trade Management Services provides customers with an even more powerful set of solutions designed to maximize their trade investments and minimize complexity, time and cost throughout their international trade operations.”
STTAS’s 750 trade professionals provide services in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, North America and South America, and help clients comply with the ever-changing and complex rules, regulations and laws covering international trade. Nearly 70 percent of the company’s employees work outside of the U.S. in strategic offices in cities like Shanghai; Bengaluru, India; Aberdeen, Scotland; Warsaw; Mexico City; Buenos Aires and São Paulo, Brazil. These additional locations will complement UPS Trade Management Services’ existing global operations in Hefei, China; Wroclaw, Poland, and Singapore.
STTAS also provides an advanced trade management technology platform that UPS said it will continue to build upon over time. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
While the companies pointed out their common interests in announcing the deal, the acquisition can be seen as somewhat unusual, as it breaks apart STTAS from its parent company and brings UPS a company somewhat outside of its core. It can also be compared to recent deals bringing together Amazon and whole foods, and Walmart and Lord & Taylor, where the agreements serve as value-added transactions rather than purely volume additives in a particular sector.
Earlier this year, UPS acquired zone solutions, which specializes in foreign trade zone (FTZ) services. zone solutions brings UPS customers extensive expertise in navigating all aspects of FTZ operations, providing managed services, systems implementation and consulting.