28-05-2025
S. Korea launches feasibility study on trade negotiation items with US: sources
South Korea is checking the economic feasibility of various items that may come as the result of trade negotiations with the United States to assess the impact of such items on the national economy, government sources said Wednesday.
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy recently asked the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy to conduct a feasibility study on agenda items of the ongoing trade negotiations between Seoul and Washington, according to the sources familiar with the matter.
The two countries have been working to craft a package deal on trade issues, including tariffs, non-tariff barriers and economic cooperation, by July 8, when the 90-day pause on the Donald Trump administration's reciprocal tariffs will end.
South Korea has been seeking to gain a full exemption or reduction of the Trump administration's 25 percent reciprocal tariffs for the country, as well as sectoral tariffs on steel, automobile and other imports.
In a working-level meeting last week, the office of US Trade Representative urged Seoul to resolve non-trade barrier issues listed on its 2025 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers, a Seoul trade official has said on the condition of anonymity.
The NTE report had laid out a wide range of Korea's non-tariff measures, including its import ban on American beef from cattle aged 30 months or older, South Korea's "offset" defense trade policy, digital trade barriers, such as restrictions on the export of location-based data, and emission-related regulations on imported cars, as well as pricing policies for pharmaceuticals.
Though details of Washington's requests have not been disclosed, industry watchers say the US may have also raised an issue with Seoul's high tariffs on rice imports, which Trump has mentioned as an example of trade barriers by foreign countries in his speech announcing the country-by-country reciprocal tariffs in early April.
Seoul's baseline tariff on rice imports stands at 513 percent, but the country actually implements only a 5 percent tariff on a yearly import quota of up to 132,304 tons of US rice.
South Korea's trade treaty law requires the government to conduct economic feasibility studies on new trade deals that may have a significant influence on the national economy and submit a report on the negotiations to the National Assembly.
South Korea plans to pass the baton of the ongoing tariff negotiations with the US to the next government as the country is set to hold its presidential election next Tuesday, with the incoming administration widely expected to take office the very next day.
"The US seems to have put many issues on the table as part of its negotiation strategy, but given the timeline and South Korea's domestic situation, Washington likely understands that it is difficult to reach a conclusion on these matters in the near future," a government official said. (Yonhap)
