SEOUL: South Korea rejected on Wednesday (Mar 5) US President Donald Trump’s accusation that it charged steep levies on imports from america regardless of US army 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 referred to as “unfair” practices, saying Seoul’s “common tariff is 4 instances larger” 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 price on imports from america 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 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 america as a consequence of their bilateral free commerce settlement, the ministry mentioned.
“The South Korean authorities plans to actively clarify these particulars via varied dialogue channels with the US sooner or later,” the ministry added.
