The South Korea’s Ministry of Trade said today that is’ exempted from the US steel and aluminum tariffs. However, South Korea now received a quota of around 2.68m tonnes of steel exports. And that is 70% of the annual average of Korean steel exports to the US between 2015-2017. South Korean contributed to 9.7% of US steel imports in 2017.
In the mean time, Both countries also agreed on 20-year extension of Korean pickup trucks, until 2041. US automakers could also bring in 50000 vehicles to South Korean annually, doubling from prior amount of 25000.
That is the first of many US allies to receive an indefinite exemption on the steel and aluminum tariffs. Other six, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico and EU are just having the tariffs temporarily suspended.
At this point, there is no news regarding the expemption on Japan and Taiwan, two other major US allies in Asia, yet.
