Anchor: As the Joe Biden administration entered office in the United States this week, attention is drawn to how its policies will affect the South Korean economy. While consumption in the U.S. is expected to increase and economic uncertainties to ease, both positive factors for South Korean exports, the Sino-U.S. trade row will likely persist.
Choi You Sun reports.

Report: U.S. consumers will be the biggest winners of the Biden administration's one-point-nine trillion dollar stimulus plan. It will also be a boon for South Korea, which sends 15 percent of its exports stateside.
 
Coupled with what is likely to be a more predictable environment compared with the Trump administration, the Hyundai Research Institute forecast in a recent report that Bidenomics has the potential to nudge up South Korea's exports by as much as two-point-two percentage points. It predicted that South Korea's gross domestic product could go up by up to point-four percentage points.

Another positive sign is that one of the new administration's key investment areas will be the environmentally friendly sector, which is in line with South Korean companies' investment expansion in electric vehicle batteries and renewable energy.

An official from the Korea International Trade Association(KITA), however, says under the Biden administration's policy aim to utilize goods produced in the U.S., a growing number of American companies will demand measures to protect their industries.

Projecting traditional trade remedies, including anti-dumping tariffs, to remain in place, the official called for South Korean firms to draw up customized strategies, such as expanding investment in the U.S.

Another possible downside is that the U.S. and China trade conflict will continue, forcing South Korea, a major U.S. ally and key trading partner to China, to walk a tightrope.

The only difference would be that the Biden administration, which prioritizes multilateralism, could ask South Korea to join a new trade bloc that excludes China.
Choi You Sun, KBS World Radio News.