South Korea’s exports to the United States have shown meaningful growth since the two countries’ bilateral free trade agreement went into effect two years earlier, proof of the positive effects of an FTA on trade, the South Korean government said Thursday.

In the period since the Korea-U.S. FTA went into effect on March 15, 2012, South Korea’s outbound shipments to the U.S. amounted to $121 billion, up 10.3 percent from $109.7 billion two years prior to the implementation, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

The growth rate far outpaces the 6 percent increase for the country’s overall exports over the cited period.

“In the two years since the implementation of the FTA, exports to the United States rose at a faster rate than the country’s exports to the rest of the world, providing strong support for the growth in the country’s overall exports during the period,” the ministry said in a press release.

It also said the country’s exports of goods that benefited under the Korea-U.S. FTA jumped 15.7 percent over the cited period while those of products unaffected by the FTA only gained 1.9 percent.

The FTA also helped boost U.S. investment in South Korea. In the two years following the implementation of the FTA, U.S. investment in South Korea amounted to $8.04 billion, up 82.5 percent from about $4.4 billion in the previous two-year period, according to the ministry. (Yonhap)