WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Monday said he would impose a 25 per cent tariff on goods from Japan and South Korea starting on August 1, posting letters to the leaders of those countries on his social media platform.
In near-identically worded letters to the Japanese and South Korean leaders, Trump said the tariffs would apply from August 1 because their trading relationships with Washington were “unfortunately, far from Reciprocal”.
Meanwhile, Wall Street’s main indexes extended their fall after Trump made the announcement.
At 12:26 pm, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 456.55 points, or 1.02 per cent, to 44,369.96, the S&P 500 lost 53.47 points, or 0.86 per cent, to 6,225.58 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 187.70 points, or 0.88 per cent, to 20,413.28.
Even before his election to the office, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung had said there is no need to rush to reach a trade agreement with the United States.
Earlier, South Korea had suggested “calm” and “orderly” discussions with the US on trade issues, when two sides began talks last month.
In this connection, the former South Korean finance minister had listed four categories to focus – tariff-and non-tariff measures, economic security, investment cooperation, and monetary policies.
On the other hand, Chinese leader Xi Jinping last month urged Lee to work with Beijing to uphold free trade and defend “multilateralism”.
In a phone call with Lee, Xi said Beijing and Seoul to “inject more certainty into regional and international situations”, as well as to “promote strategic cooperative partnership to a higher level”.
It’s developing story. Details to follow