Conspicuously missing from the five major presidential candidates’ campaign pledges is how they would address increasing external trade pressures on the country, particularly the protectionism pursued by US President Donald Trump, upon winning next week’s election.



During their debate on economic issues last week, the audience was apparently let down by their unfocused approaches to a rising US demand for renegotiating the bilateral free trade agreement that took effect in 2012.





(Yonhap)



A day before the discussion, Trump said in an interview he would “renegotiate or terminate” the trade deal with South Korea, describing it as “horrible.”



The remark, which came along with his wish that Seoul would pay for the US missile defense system being deployed here, reminded South Koreans of his toughness on securing economic interests.



The prospect of renegotiating the trade deal with the US and China’s retaliation against Seoul for the deployment of the US anti-missile shield may dampen a recent rebound in Korea’s exports.



On the back of a recovering global economy, the country’s outbound shipments rose 24.2 percent from a year earlier to $51 billion in April, extending the streak of on-year increases to six months, according to data from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. Its exports to the US and China climbed at a slower pace of 3.9 percent and 10.2 percent, respectively.



A slump in exports, which account for about half of Korea’s gross domestic product, would hamper Asia’s fourth-largest economy from being put on path to full recovery.



A recent report by the Korea Economic Research Institute, a private think tank, predicted Korea would suffer up to $17 billion in lost exports to the US over five years if the bilateral trade accord was renegotiated, with the sectors of auto, machine and steel hit the hardest.



The country’s external earnings are also projected to fall 2.7 percent if exports to China contract 10 percent due to Beijing’s retaliatory measures and possible trade friction between the US and China, according to a report released Sunday by the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade, a state-funded think tank.



Concerns over unfriendly and uncertain external conditions were reflected in a recent survey by a local business lobby of 166 midsized firms, in which nearly 80 percent said exports would remain unchanged or decrease in 2017, compared to last year.