SEOUL: South Korea rejected on Wednesday (Mar 5) US President Donald Trump’s accusation that it charged steep levies on imports from the USA regardless of US army assist, saying that tariffs on American items are “near 0 per cent”.
Trump criticised South Korea, amongst different nations, on Tuesday over what he known as “unfair” practices, saying Seoul’s “common tariff is 4 instances greater” than that of US import taxes.
He additionally complained that Washington had given “a lot assist militarily” to South Korea, referring to the tens of hundreds of US troopers stationed there partly to guard Seoul in opposition to the nuclear-armed North.
Hours after Trump spoke, Seoul’s commerce ministry issued an announcement headlined: “The tariff charge on imports from the USA to South Korea is successfully near 0 per cent”.
“Underneath the Korea-US Free Commerce Settlement, which took impact in 2012, each nations have eradicated tariffs on most items,” the ministry stated.
“As of 2024, the efficient tariff charge on imports from the US stands at roughly 0.79 per cent,” it added.
Underneath world buying and selling guidelines, South Korea does impose tariffs of 13.4 per cent on some imports – in comparison with the US baseline of three.3 per cent – however not on merchandise from the USA on account of their bilateral free commerce settlement, the ministry stated.
“The South Korean authorities plans to actively clarify these particulars via varied dialogue channels with the US sooner or later,” the ministry added.
