US Commerce Secretary: "No Plans to Renegotiate Steel Quotas with Korea"

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy New York=Special Correspondent Joselgina] Gina Raimondo, U.S. Secretary of Commerce, stated on the 23rd (local time) that there are no plans to renegotiate the export volume restrictions on Korean steel products to the U.S.

In an interview with a foreign media outlet on the same day, Secretary Raimondo said, "Korea reached a sort of agreement with the previous (U.S.) administration through quota adjustments, so renegotiating this is not a high priority for us at the moment."

During former President Donald Trump's administration in 2018, the U.S. applied Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, citing national security, to impose high tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum products. At that time, the U.S. proposed a quota system as a way to avoid high tariffs, and Korea accepted a quota limiting exports to 70% of the average volume of finished steel products from 2015 to 2017. As a result, the average annual export volume of Korean steel to the U.S., which was 3.83 million tons from 2015 to 2017, was drastically reduced to around 2 million tons.

Like the European Union (EU), Japan, and the United Kingdom, which have renegotiated with the U.S. since the inauguration of the Joe Biden administration, Korea is currently strongly hoping for renegotiation. These countries reached agreements using a tariff-rate quota (TRQ) system, which removes tariffs on a certain volume but imposes tariffs on volumes exceeding that. However, unlike with the EU and others, the U.S. has shown a negative response to renegotiations with Korea.

Earlier, Katherine Tai, U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), also expressed a negative stance on initiating renegotiations of steel product quotas with Korea on the 16th, stating, "Korea is actually already in a better position than many other countries and is already benefiting."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.