South Korea will not resist duties imposed by US President Donald Trump, acting President Han Dok-soo told the Financial Times on 20 April.
He said the US played a “huge role” in “making Korea what it is now”. “After the devastation of the Korean War, the US provided us with aid, technology, investment and security guarantees,” Han Dok-soo said. That helped make South Korea “a very convenient investment environment for foreigners,” he added.
Given this” debt of gratitude “Seoul, according to the acting president, prefers to enter into talks with Trump to seek “solutions that will be beneficial to both sides” rather than viewing Trump’s actions as “a subject we should fight against.”
South Korean officials, according to the FT, were” alarmed” when Trump announced the imposition of 25 per cent duties, despite the current free trade agreement between the countries under which South Korea does not actually levy duties on US goods. However, Han Dok-soo said Seoul is willing to discuss “non-tariff trade barriers” with Washington.
On 2 April, Donald Trump announced duties against most countries in the world. The largest duties, following several rounds of their mutual increase, are finally set against China (their size reached 145% in total). Trump’s announcement of the duties provoked panic on Asian stock exchanges.
A few days later, Trump announced that he was freezing duty increases for 90 days against more than 75 countries that had asked for dialogue on the issue and did not respond. For them, the duties at a base rate of 10 per cent imposed earlier will remain in place for that period. Negotiations on duties with Trump have already been initiated by Japan, and the US president himself noted “great progress” in this dialogue