According to a report of the Korean Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade (KIET) released by the Southeast Asian country of Vietnam has replaced China as Korea's largest textile market.

The report shows that in January 2014 to May period, accounting for 16.5 percent of Vietnam's total textile exports in Korea, more than China's overall textile export share of 15.6%. Therefore, Vietnam first became South Korea's largest textile export destination.

KIET said in its report on the Korean textile industry, China is still an attractive has considerable growth potential in the market.

KIET report shows that in 2014, five years ago, South Korea exported $ 1.04 billion worth of textiles and apparel to China, while the country imported goods worth 24.7 billion dollars, resulting in $ 1.43 billion in the textile trade deficit.

Since 2002, South Korea's textile trade deficit in a row. When this deficit is one of the reasons in the past Korean manufacturer's production centers to China, and now transferred to Southeast Asia. On the other hand, China's textile and apparel stable into the Korean local market.

The report recommends that Korean companies should be concerned about export finished products, rather than textiles and shipping materials.

According KIET data, 2012 China apparel and clothing accessories market value of 291 trillion won (about $ 286.8 billion), an increase of 10%, and is expected to reach 435 trillion won in 2017, the average annual rate of rise of 8-9%.

KIET said, get a bigger Chinese market is particularly important part of the ROK free trade agreement, because it will not have to pay 20-30 percent of South Korean goods tariffs are now required to directly enter the Chinese market.