Minister Kim Jeong-kwan of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said regarding the results of the South Korea-U.S. tariff negotiations, "Currently, there is no additional market opening for rice and beef." He added, "Given the era of extreme uncertainty, we do not know how the situation will develop moving forward."
On the 5th, Minister Kim appeared on MBC Radio's Kim Jong-bae's Focus and said, "After showing images of the mad cow disease incident, there have been no further advances in discussions on rice and beef."
Earlier, the government finalized negotiations with the U.S. on the 31st of last month, reducing the reciprocal tariff from 25% to 15%, a decrease of 10 percentage points. As a condition for this, it set up a special strategic industry cooperation fund of $350 billion, including shipbuilding, to support U.S. investments and agreed to import $100 billion worth of U.S. energy.
However, explanations between the South Korean and U.S. governments regarding the key issue of whether to open the rice market were inconsistent. The South Korean government maintains that it has "not discussed" this matter, while the U.S. noted in an official briefing that it would be "a historic opening of the market to American products."
Minister Kim said regarding the possibility of expanding imports of U.S. agricultural products, such as genetically modified organisms (LMOs) potatoes, "Just as we managed to reduce the seemingly inevitable 25% tariff to 15%, we will work closely with the Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs, and the Ministry of Health and Welfare to address this issue."
Minister Kim stated about automobile tariffs, "It is unfortunate, but we will ensure that we can maintain our competitiveness with government support." He recalled, "The U.S. had a strong position that a 15% tariff would be applied uniformly to automobiles, and since a significant portion of Korea's trade surplus with the U.S. comes from automobiles, there was not much room for negotiation in that area."
He added, "If it had gone to 25%, it would have been a tremendous shock to the industry; a 15% tariff is a way to avoid the worst," and stated, "We will work to bridge the tariff gap that has widened from 2.5% to 15% through support for research and development or collaboration with partner and component companies."
In response to the question of whether the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is essentially over, he said, "We should not judge the effectiveness of the FTA solely by looking at sectors where item tariffs are applied, such as automobiles," citing ramen as an example of the FTA's continuing benefits.
Minister Kim noted, "In Japan, there is a basic tariff of 6.4% added to a 15% item tariff on ramen, but due to the FTA, Korea benefits from a 0% + 15% tariff. The FTA benefits still exist and are clearly evident in ramen exports worth hundreds of millions of dollars."
Minister Kim spoke about the maritime industry cooperation, which was a major focus of this negotiation, saying, "It was a proposal that the U.S. had not anticipated at all," and described it as an area that received a strong response from the U.S. side.
He stated, "MASGA includes a cooperation package that encompasses substantial investments, such as the modernization of the 'Philly Shipyard' in Philadelphia, welding training programs for American workers, and solutions to issues related to orders and maintenance of commercial vessels (MRO)," adding, "It has created a structure beyond simple investment."