Yeo Han-koo, head of the Office of the Minister for Trade at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources, said on the 17th that he believes the "semiconductor proclamation" the United States recently released will have limited immediate impact on Korean corporations "in its current form."
Deputy Minister Yeo arrived in Washington, D.C., on the 11th and completed a visit to the United States, and gave this answer to reporters' related questions as he returned via Incheon Airport on the morning of the day.
Deputy Minister Yeo was originally scheduled to return the previous day. When U.S. President Donald Trump signed a proclamation on semiconductors and key items, he delayed his return by a day and assessed the impact of the proclamation on Korean corporations and others.
Deputy Minister Yeo said, "The first-phase measure the United States released focuses on two types of advanced chips from Nvidia and AMD, and the memory chips that our corporations mainly export are excluded," forecasting that the impact on Korean corporations such as Samsung Electronics and SK hynix would be limited.
At the same time, he said, "We cannot be at ease yet because we do not know when and in what form the second-phase measures will be expanded," adding, "The industry and the government will continue to coordinate closely so that the best outcome can be achieved for our corporations."
Earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump on the 14th (local time) signed a proclamation at the White House imposing a 25% tariff on semiconductors imported into the United States and then re-exported to other countries, such as Nvidia's artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor chip "H200."
Through a fact sheet, the White House said, "President Trump may impose broader tariffs on imports of semiconductors and their derivative products in the near future to encourage manufacturing in the United States, and may introduce a corresponding tariff offset program," signaling "second-phase" measures.
Deputy Minister Yeo said, "In last year's tariff negotiations where a fact sheet was released, when we reached an agreement with the United States, we agreed that in the semiconductor sector we would be treated at a level not disadvantageous compared with major countries," adding, "Since results of consultations between the United States and Taiwan have now come out, we need to refer to them and hold additional consultations on specific parts going forward."
On the 14th, President Trump also signed a proclamation directing the start of negotiations with trading partners so that imports of critical minerals are carried out in a manner consistent with U.S. security.
Regarding questions about the "critical minerals proclamation," Deputy Minister Yeo said, "The U.S. government is working very hard to diversify critical mineral supply chains, and we understand that against that backdrop the critical minerals (U.S. Trade Expansion Act) Section 232 proclamation was released," adding, "We will keep a close eye on this and will need to consult further with the U.S. government."
On the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA) Joint Committee—which was originally scheduled for Dec. last year to discuss non-tariff barriers but has been postponed to date—Deputy Minister Yeo dismissed some concerns, saying, "This is not something to be rushed."
Deputy Minister Yeo explained, "The scope of non-tariff matters is very broad. During this trip to the United States, we met several times with the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) for consultations, and we are consulting as needed."
In response to a question suggesting the postponement of the Korea-U.S. FTA Joint Committee was due to the so-called "Coupang incident," Deputy Minister Yeo explained, "What matters is not whether it is a U.S. corporation or a Korean corporation, but that an unprecedented-scale personal data leak occurred, and we are emphasizing that an investigation is being conducted transparently and without discrimination in accordance with our laws and procedures."
He added, "I clearly explained that if a Korean corporation doing business in the United States had caused such a large-scale information leak in the United States, the United States would naturally do the same, and U.S. officials understood that point."
He said, "However, because there are a great many members in both the U.S. House and Senate, and various constituencies and interests can produce different voices, we will not be satisfied with this single attempt and will step up efforts to continue explaining the exact intent of our policy."