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 navy help, saying that tariffs on American items are “near 0 per cent”.
Trump criticised South Korea, amongst different international locations, on Tuesday over what he known as “unfair” practices, saying Seoul’s “common tariff is 4 occasions 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 1000’s 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 price on imports from the USA to South Korea is successfully near 0 per cent”.
“Beneath the Korea-US Free Commerce Settlement, which took impact in 2012, each international locations have eradicated tariffs on most items,” the ministry mentioned.
“As of 2024, the efficient tariff price on imports from the US stands at roughly 0.79 per cent,” it added.
Beneath international 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 as a result of their bilateral free commerce settlement, the ministry mentioned.
“The South Korean authorities plans to actively clarify these particulars by way of varied dialogue channels with the US sooner or later,” the ministry added.
