The Korea International Trade Association said Tuesday major export items of South Korea, China and Japan are increasingly overlapping each other, and Korea appears to be suffering the most from that situation.

A total of 18 of the top 100 Korean, Chinese, and Japanese exports were of the same type, up from five in 2000, according to the association.

Of the country's 10 top exports, only two tankers and petrochemical products were different than the 10 largest exports by the two neighboring countries.