South Korea faced more import restrictions from major countries in the first quarter due to growing protectionism worldwide amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the Korea International Trade Association (KITA) on Sunday, South Korea saw five new import curbs in the first three months of the year.

As of early April, South Korea is subject to 212 import regulation measures from 26 countries.

Of them, 159 are anti-dumping duties, while 43 others are safeguard measures and ten are countervailing duties.

The United States was found to impose the most regulations on South Korean goods with 44, followed by India with 27 and China with 16.

By product, import curbs on steel and metal products were the largest at 103, followed by chemicals with 45.