Trade minister urges US to begin talks on steel import restrictions

Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo (left) met with US Trade Representative Katherine Chi Tai during a meeting in Italy on Oct. 13 (MOTIE)

Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo said on Monday that he called on the US to begin talks on revising restrictions on steel imports from South Korea during last week‘s meeting with his US counterpart.

“As the US has recently reached an agreement on or has begun negotiations with the European Union and Japan, we strongly conveyed (to the US) that they should begin talks with South Korea, their ally which is competing with the EU and Japan in the US market,” Yeo said in a press briefing.

“The US steel industry is known to be sensitive about this issue, but as the demand within the US for high-end Korean steel products is high and South Korean manufacturers’ investment in the US is rising sharply, we requested again for a swift beginning of negotiations to resolve the Section 232 issue.” Section 232 of the US Trade Expansion Act allows the US president to impose import restrictions based on an investigation and affirmative determination by the US Department of Commerce that certain imports threaten to impair the national security.

South Korea has been pushing for talks to remove US restrictions imposed under Section 232 on its steel and aluminum exports to the US after Washington decided to allow duty-free importation of some European steel and aluminum products.

The US decided last month to lift import tariffs of 25 percent on European steel and 10 percent on aluminum imposed by former US president Donald Trump in 2018. The tariffs will be lifted from Jan. 1.

Under a 2018 deal, the US currently waives a 25 percent tariff on South Korean steel imports in return for limiting Korea’s annual steel exports to the US to 70 percent of its average steel export volume over the past three years.

Yeo and US Trade Representative Katherine Tai held on Friday a joint committee meeting of the bilateral free trade agreement in Seoul.

Yeo said he pointed out to Tai that a US Congress bill that gives incentives for electric cars can be discriminative against foreign companies.

The minister said he also repeatedly delivered Seoul’s concerns over the US Commerce Department’s recent request for trade data from South Korean chipmakers, and that it wishes such actions do not recur.

The two sides agreed on Friday to set up new dialogue channels for better cooperation on supply chains and other trade issues such as new technology, digital, labor and the environment.

By Kim So-hyun(sophie@heraldcorp.com)