South Korea trying to resolve US auto tariffs quickly, trade envoy says

[SEOUL] South Korea’s top trade envoy said on Friday that South Korea is trying to resolve issues around US auto tariffs quickly, explaining to the US that “Japan and South Korea are different”.

Under a trade deal with Japan, the US applies a 15 per cent tariff on Japanese car imports, while US tariffs on South Korean auto imports are 25 per cent.

On July 30, Trump said the US will reduce duties on automobile imports to 15 per cent in return for Seoul investing US$350 billion in the US. But the change has yet to be implemented as the two countries are at odds over the details of the investments.

“We’ve explained the differences between Japan and Korea as much as possible,” trade envoy Yeo Han Koo told reporters upon his return to South Korea on Friday after a trip to Washington this week where he met with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

Top officials in Seoul have repeated in recent days that accepting all US demands and copying the format of Japan’s deal with the US would be difficult. REUTERS