South Korea braces for market disruptions after Trump tariffs
Asia’s fourth-largest economy relies heavily on commerce for growth, with its largest companies generating the bulk of their revenues overseas
[SEOUL] South Korea’s Acting President Choi Sang-mok urged top policymakers to prepare for possible market disruptions after US President Donald Trump proceeded with plans to apply 25 per cent tariffs on global steel and aluminium imports.
South Korea, a major metals producer in Asia, refrained from taking any immediate retaliation steps after the duties took effect on Wednesday (Mar 12). Instead, Seoul sent its trade minister to Washington to accelerate negotiations with the Trump administration.
“Choi called for utmost efforts in negotiations with the US and ordered officials to make sure a rapid influx of steel materials that could not be exported to the US and other countries does not cause disruptions in the domestic market,” his office said in a readout on Thursday.
The latest tariffs add to trade measures introduced in Trump’s first term, removing exemptions for many nations and extending them to new categories of products. The risk for steelmakers around the world is that the tariffs worsen oversupply, piling pressure on producers and governments at a time when demand for the alloy is already struggling.
Shortly after the tariffs took effect, South Korea’s Industry Minister Ahn Duk-geun convened a meeting with business leaders and discussed ways to beef up their joint response to US tariffs.
The government will come up with countermeasures on steel trade and unfair imports issues based on that meeting, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said. The measures will include heightened monitoring on imports and circumvention efforts, the ministry said.
“We will protect the interest of our industries as much as possible by further stepping up a response system before reciprocal tariffs take effect in early April as announced,” Ahn said. He urged companies to actively reach out to US stakeholders and share details of their discussions with the government real-time.
Trump last week cited South Korea as a country with more unfair tariffs against American products than China, slamming the use of subsidies to support chipmakers such as Samsung Electronics. South Korea has rebutted the claim, saying its effective tariff on US imports amounted to 0.79 per cent last year due to a free trade deal that came into effect in 2012.
South Korea’s trade minister will be in Washington this week to sit down with his US counterparts on trade matters. Asia’s fourth-largest economy relies heavily on commerce for growth, with its largest companies generating the bulk of their revenues overseas. BLOOMBERG
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