The Trade Explorer and HS Codes
Open Korea Customs statistics to look into exporting and the first wall you hit is the HS code. You cannot search for 『kimchi』. You have to know 『2005.99.10.00』. 『ViewVibe』 global trade analysis takes a product name in Korean, finds the code, and uses it to gather five years of import and export data and the KOTRA material on one screen. No login needed.
At a glance
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| What you enter | A product name in Korean, or a country name |
| How long it takes | Search results in seconds. AI HS lookup 4 to 6 seconds, KOTRA recommendation scores about 5 seconds on first load |
| What you get | HS code and item name, monthly import and export series, export share and unit price by country, KOTRA promising market recommendations, required certifications and import regulations, overseas market news and product reports, related items, new markets. Pick a country and you get its trade indicators, top 10 exports, import regulations, Korean companies there, KOTRA office reports and trade fraud cases |
| Where the numbers come from | Korea Customs import and export statistics (10,745,177 records, 231 countries, 13,306 HS codes, updated Oct 19, 2026), KOTRA open data, and Claude on Amazon Bedrock for HS suggestions |
| Login | Not needed |
| Cost | Free |
| Address | viewvibe.ai/market/trade |
Why it starts with the HS code
The HS code is the item number customs offices around the world share. The first six digits are the same in every country, and Korea adds four more for a ten digit code. Customs statistics, KOTRA certification data and import regulation lists are all keyed to this number, so without it none of those sources opens properly.
The trouble is that few people know the numbers. Outside customs brokers, hardly anyone has memorized that kimchi is 2005.99.10.00 or that lip balm is 3304.99. Global trade analysis replaces that first step with a product name search and an AI suggestion. Everything after that attaches to the code automatically.
Photo: the 『ViewVibe』 global trade analysis start screen (as of Oct 19, 2026, dark mode, Korean interface). The header lists 10,745,177 customs records, 231 countries, 13,306 HS codes and the update date. The four tabs are product search, by country, overview and trends. Open it
Step 1. Find the HS code from a product name
Type 『김치』 (kimchi) in the search box and candidates appear with a match rate. Kimchi is caught at 『match 100%』 and confirmed as 2005.99.10.00, with the labels industry HS20, category HS200599 and level 10 underneath, meaning the item is resolved down to the ten digit code.
Photo: the search result for 『kimchi』. Below the candidate list is the 『Find HS with AI』 box, and the confirmed item header shows the ten digit code, industry and category.
Some products are not caught by keyword. Write an everyday phrase like 『vegan moisturizing lip balm』 and the search returns nothing or something off. That is what 『Find HS with AI』 is for: it translates everyday words into the customs classification. For the vegan lip balm it returned HS 3304.99 『other beauty and makeup preparations』 at 75% as the first candidate and 3304.91 powders at 5% as the second, in 4.2 seconds, with four ten digit codes unfolded under each.
Photo: the AI HS lookup for 『vegan moisturizing lip balm』. Each candidate carries a probability and its ten digit codes, and the note below says the AI classification is for reference and the final HS should be confirmed with a customs broker or an advance ruling from Korea Customs. Follow that.
Step 2. Read the item screen
Once the code is confirmed, the panels follow below it. Reading from the top for kimchi:
KOTRA promising export markets
KOTRA scores every item by country and the panel splits them into five export stages: domestic, beginner, promising, growing and leading. At the beginner stage for kimchi the order is the United States 12.3, Japan 8.4 and Singapore 7.8, with our 2025 export value from customs beside each. The countries to watch are the ones with a high score and a small export value: Singapore at 7.8 with 2.8M, the Philippines at 5.9 with 1.7M.
Photo: KOTRA promising markets for kimchi (HS 2005.99). Switch the stage chip to see that stage's ranking. Scores are KOTRA's (as of Jun 26, 2025), export values are from customs.
Certifications and import regulations for the item
Kimchi has 7 certifications and 0 regulations. Mandatory ones come first: Belgium's EU food safety regime, the United States FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, the Philippines FDA imported food registration, and China's overseas food producer registration. Voluntary ones follow: Germany's EU organic certification, Japan's JAS and Australia's HACCP. Expand a row for the procedure and the authority.
Photo: the 7 certifications for kimchi. 『Mandatory』 or 『voluntary』 is marked in front, and the note below says requirements change often, so confirm with the KOTRA office and the certifying body before you proceed.
KOTRA overseas market news and product reports
Fourteen items from the last two years relate to HS 2005: trend articles on Sweden, Kazakhstan and the United States, and kimchi market reports for the United States, Malaysia, Australia and Austria with summaries. A title opens the KOTRA original.
Photo: 14 KOTRA news items and product reports for kimchi. Product report rows carry a market summary.
Monthly series and share by country
Monthly exports, imports and balance from January 2020 to August 2026 are drawn on one chart. Below it, an 『export share by country』 bar chart and a 『unit price by country』 table sit side by side. For kimchi in 2025 the order is Japan 56.1M, the United States 43.7M and Canada 9.3M, while the price per kilogram is 3.03 dollars in Japan, 3.32 in the United States, 5.19 in Germany and 5.83 in Sweden. Where you sell the most and where you get the best price are different countries, and that shows at a glance.
Photo: the monthly series for kimchi. Customs data lags, so the last month or two may be empty.
Photo: kimchi export share by country (2025) and the unit price table. Value, volume and dollar unit price on one row.
Related items and new markets
At the bottom are the other ten digit items under the same HS6 (other 12.5M, Korean thistle 26.1K, sauerkraut 877) and new markets with high growth rates. Many new markets start from a small base, so read the amount beside the growth rate rather than the rate alone.
Photo: related items and recommended new markets. Growth is year over year, and a small base makes the number look large.
Step 3. Pick a country
The 『by country』 tab starts with a country search or the chips for China, the United States, Japan, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Pick Vietnam and the 2025 figures come first: exports 62.77B, imports 31.77B, balance +31.00B and 7,285 HS items traded, followed by the monthly series, top export items and trade by industry. The top export to Vietnam is parts for telecom equipment at 8.20B, then integrated circuits and DRAM.
Photo: the top of the Vietnam screen. Each indicator card carries a small trend chart.
Photo: top exports to Vietnam (2025). Switch between exports and imports.
Next comes KOTRA country information: GDP, GDP per capita, growth rate, inflation, unemployment, exchange rate and trade with Korea in a table by year from 2022, with 『import regulations against Korea』, 4 cases, right below it, each with item, HS, scope and ruling period. For Vietnam they are mostly steel products. Then the top 10 Korean exports to Vietnam and 17 trade agreements.
Photo: KOTRA country information for Vietnam. Each value carries its reference year.
Photo: Vietnam's 4 import regulations against Korea and the top 10 exports. Regulations come from KOTRA country information, exports from customs.
There are two sources on Korean companies in the country: the main companies excerpted from KOTRA country information, and the 2024 directory of 2,602 companies by industry, entry type and listed count over time. Manufacturing is the largest, and the chart shows how the count has changed every other year since 2012.
Photo: the directory of Korean companies in Vietnam (2,602 in 2024). Change the year chip for that year's snapshot.
Below that, 『KOTRA reports and briefs』 holds 633 items: annual entry strategy PDFs, business trip materials and short briefs on trade and regulation, followed by 526 market news items and product reports. Last come 19 trade fraud cases with the top types, 8 KOTRA office alerts and 22 success stories of Korean companies. Worth a look before any deal.
Photo: KOTRA reports and briefs for Vietnam. Entry strategies open directly as PDFs by year.
Photo: 19 trade fraud cases for Vietnam with the top types and KOTRA office alerts. Each type lists what to check before a deal.
Step 4. The overview tab for the whole picture
The 『overview』 tab summarizes all of Korea's trade. For 2025 it shows exports 709.03B, imports 631.69B, a balance of +77.34B and 231 trading countries at the top, then the annual trend from 2020 through the January to August total for 2026, the top export destinations (China, the United States, Vietnam, Taiwan and Hong Kong) and the top industries (electrical equipment and semiconductors, vehicles and transport equipment, machinery).
Photo: the overview tab cards and annual trend. 2026 is shown as a January to August total.
Photo: top export destinations and top industries for 2025. Hover a bar for the value.
Further down are the 9,930 Korean companies abroad (2024) by industry and country (Vietnam 2,602, China 2,397, the United States 933), and the 1,176 trade fraud cases filed since 2015 by type (document forgery 269, shipping defects 246, email fraud 198, payment fraud 158).
Photo: country ranking of Korean companies abroad and trade fraud types. Each type separates damage, prevented and attempted counts.
The trend tab is in beta
The 『trends』 tab computes growth rates for country and HS group pairs once you set the HS digits, the recent year, the base year and a minimum export value and press 『apply filter』. It scans the whole range, so it takes a few seconds, and it is still in beta. Pairs with a small base show extreme growth rates, so raise the minimum export value before reading the results.
Photo: the trend tab filter. Choose HS6, HS4 or HS2 and the two years to compare.
Where the numbers come from
- Export and import values, volumes, unit prices, series, country shares and item rankings: Korea Customs import and export statistics. Korea basis, in US dollars, reflected with a one to two month lag. 10,745,177 records as of Oct 19, 2026.
- Promising market scores, certifications and import regulations, country information, overseas market news and product reports, entry strategies and trip materials, trade fraud cases, success stories and the directory of Korean companies abroad: KOTRA open data. The source is printed on every panel.
- AI HS lookup: Claude on Amazon Bedrock translates everyday words into HS6 candidates, matched against the customs item table to unfold the ten digit codes.
What it took to align these sources on one code system is described in ViewVibe Featured as an Outstanding Private Sector Use Case of KOTRA Open Data.
How it differs from the export diagnosis
Global trade analysis is an explorer for browsing items and countries freely. Registering your own company and product and reading the market, country, risk and customs tabs around them is the export diagnosis, covered in Diagnose an Export Market from One Product. Start in the explorer if you have not chosen a product yet, and move to the export diagnosis once you have.
Good to know
- Everything is visible without a login. You do not have to register a company or a product.
- Countries can be searched by their two letter code. 『VN』 finds Vietnam.
- The AI HS lookup is for reference. Confirm the code you will use at customs with a customs broker or an advance ruling from Korea Customs.
- New markets with large growth rates and trend results often start from a small base. Read the amount alongside, and raise the minimum export value filter.
- Every panel prints its source and KOTRA material links to the original. Cite that source as printed when you quote it in a report.
Who it suits
- Small manufacturers and brands looking into exporting for the first time. You can start from a product name without knowing the HS code.
- Staff who have not decided which country to look at first. KOTRA scores and our export values sit in one table.
- Anyone who needs a quick check on a country where a buyer has appeared. Import regulations, certifications and fraud types on one screen.
- Anyone writing a market research report. Every number carries its source and can be quoted as is.
Open global trade analysis · Open the export diagnosis
Screens and figures are as of Oct 19, 2026 and the data is refreshed daily.