President Donald Trump ignited a global trade war by announcing a plan to impose a 10% baseline tariff on most goods imported to the United States on April 2 and higher duties on more than 60 countries under the so-called reciprocal tariff scheme.
In a fact sheet released by the White House, the U.S. trade deficit with South Korea has tripled over the past five years. South Korea is the seventh-largest contributor to the U.S. trade deficit.
“Due to these non-reciprocal practices, the U.S. automotive industry loses out on an additional $13.5 billion in annual exports to Japan and access to a larger import market share in Korea—all while the U.S. trade deficit with Korea more than tripled from 2019 to 2024.”
The Trump administration cited non-tariff barriers in South Korea and Japan as unfair trade practices and alleged that Seoul imposes higher tariffs on American goods than domestic products.
“U.S. automakers face a variety of non-tariff barriers that impede access to the Japanese and Korean automotive markets, including non-acceptance of certain U.S. standards, duplicative testing and certification requirements, and transparency issues,” the White House said. “Due to these non-reciprocal practices, the U.S. automotive industry loses out on an additional $13.5 billion in annual exports to Japan and access to a larger import market share in Korea—all while the U.S. trade deficit with Korea more than tripled from 2019 to 2024.”
The White House added, “Countries including China, Germany, Japan, and South Korea have pursued policies that suppress the domestic consumption power of their own citizens to artificially boost the competitiveness of their export products.”
Trump also presented a chart during the announcement, showing a proposed 26% reciprocal tariff on South Korea, citing the country’s restrictions on imported cars and tariffs on rice. He named South Korea and others the “worst offenders,” referring to what he called a “huge” trade imbalance.
South Korea’s exports to the U.S. last year rose 10.4% year-on-year to $127.8 billion, while the U.S. recorded a $55.7 billion trade deficit with South Korea, the highest on record. “For decades, our country has been looted, pillaged, raped, and plundered by nations near and far,” Trump said. “Allies are often worse than enemies.”
“The U.S. has one of the lowest simple average most-favored-nation (MFN) tariff rates in the world at 3.3%, while many of our key trading partners like Brazil (11.2%), China (7.5%), South Korea (13%), India (17%), and Vietnam (9.4%) have MFN tariff rates that are significantly higher,” a senior Trump administration official said before the announcement.
However, the claim that South Korea imposes an average MFN 13% tariff is false. The average tariff on U.S. goods was just 0.79% last year, with most products traded duty-free under the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement signed in 2007, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.
