Trump Imposes 25 Percent Tariffs on South Korean Imports
The president deployed his Truth Social account to justify the punitive action, directly targeting South Korea's legislature for blocking what he characterized as a landmark bilateral agreement sealed with President Lee Jae Myung in October 2025.
"President Lee and I reached a Great Deal for both Countries... Why hasn't the Korean Legislature approved it?" Trump posted, framing the tariff hike as necessary retaliation after Washington honored its side of the bargain by cutting duties while Seoul failed to reciprocate.
South Korea's presidential office confirmed it had received no formal diplomatic communication regarding the tariff increase and disclosed that the nation's trade minister would immediately depart for the United States to conduct emergency negotiations.
The controversy stems from an agreement first unveiled in July 2025, under which Washington offered to slash US tariffs from 25% to 15%—but only if Seoul delivered substantial concessions, including a massive $350 billion investment commitment in American infrastructure and industry.
That deal remains trapped in South Korea's National Assembly, where legislators have subjected it to withering political and economic analysis.
President Lee Jae Myung has publicly sounded alarm bells, warning that fulfilling the investment requirement—particularly through cash transfers—risks plunging the country into a catastrophic liquidity crisis. He has invoked haunting memories of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, when South Korea nearly depleted its foreign currency reserves and required emergency intervention from the International Monetary Fund.
The tariff escalation against a longstanding Asian ally aligns with Trump's signature "America First" trade doctrine, which wields the threat of crushing tariffs as a bargaining tool to extract investment promises and advantageous terms from commercial partners.
Trump has deployed identical tactics against the European Union, which committed to a $600 billion US investment package and pledged to purchase $750 billion in American energy exports. Last week, the European Parliament suspended approval of that arrangement, citing Trump's "continued and escalating threats" against the bloc—including his controversial proposal to annex Greenland.
The South Korean tariff surge signals Trump's willingness to apply maximum economic pressure even to traditional allies when trade negotiations stall, potentially upending decades of strategic partnerships in pursuit of his transactional foreign policy vision.
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