| | | For now Hyundai cars are not subject to tariffs. For now.
SEOUL, March 15 (Reuters) - South Korea's trade minister has asked his U.S. counterpart to exempt the country from reciprocal tariffs if they go into effect in April, the trade ministry said on Saturday.
During his visit to Washington this week, Trade Minister Cheong In-kyo met U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, and stressed that South Korea should not get unfavourable treatment, the ministry said in a statement.
Earlier this month, Trump singled out South Korea for applying high tariffs. He said the U.S. Asian ally's tariffs were four times higher than those of the United States.
Seoul has disputed this. As of 2024, South Korea's effective tariff rate on U.S. imports stood at 0.79% as the two countries have a free trade pact, according to the South Korean government.
"Both sides shared the view that they will continue discussions to seek constructive and mutually beneficial progress on tariff and non-tariff measures in the future too," the trade ministry said.
South Korea's acting President Choi Sang-mok, who said Trump's America First policies took aim at Seoul, ordered the government to more actively communicate with the U.S. administration to resolve any misunderstanding over tariffs.
My guess is that if these other countries handle the border security and fentanyl issues, the tariffs will revert back to where they were. FWIW, according to U.S. Customs and Border Control, in 2024 the amount of fentanyl seized at the Canadian border for all of 2024 and first 2 months of 2025 totals 55.5 pounds. So why the same 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican car parts? |
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