The U.S. government claimed, despite explanations from the South Korean government, that South Korea imposes higher tariffs on the United States than the U.S. does on South Korea. South Korea trades most products tariff-free due to the free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States.
A senior official from the Trump administration claimed during a tariff policy briefing on 2nd (local time) that other countries impose most-favored-nation (MFN) tariffs that are 2 to 4 times higher than those of the United States. The official also pointed out that the trade deficit with South Korea has tripled over the past five years.
He noted, “Our MFN is 3.5%. India has 15%, South Korea has 13%, and Vietnam has nearly 10%, but the bigger issue is all these non-tariff barriers. They completely ban many of our agricultural products, such as beef, pork, and poultry.”
However, the senior official's claim that South Korea's tariff is 13%, which is higher than that of the United States, is inconsistent with reality. According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, South Korea has been trading most goods tariff-free since signing the FTA with the United States in 2007, and the current average tariff rate on imports from the U.S. is about 0.79% based on last year.
The average most-favored-nation (MFN) tariff rate South Korea imposes on World Trade Organization (WTO) member countries is 13.4%, but South Korea does not apply MFN tariffs to the United States due to the FTA. The South Korean government explained this to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Rutnik through Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Ahn Duk-keun, but it was insufficient.
During the briefing, the senior official claimed that the nation had reached a state of emergency due to chronic large-scale trade deficits. Regarding the nationality-specific calculation method for tariffs announced that day, he stated that “the trade deficit is a sum of all unfair trade practices and misconduct,” while adding that the United States only imposes half of the total tariffs calculated individually.
He added, “Although the higher tariffs imposed on us globally are bad, the higher non-tariff barriers are worse,” citing issues like currency manipulation, value-added taxes distortion, dumping and export subsidies, punitive technical barriers, unreasonable agricultural product restrictions, labor exploitation, pollution havens, and widespread counterfeiting and intellectual property theft.