South Korean media: Tariff impact becomes a reality, South Korean car exports to the US plummet! On May 20th, South Korean media JoongAng Ilbo published an article stating that data shows that affected by the 25% auto tariff imposed by the Donald Trump administration of the United States, last month South Korea's auto exports to the US plunged nearly 20%. The Ministry of Industry, Trade and Resources of South Korea announced that the export volume of autos to the US in April was 2.89 billion USD, a decrease of 19.6% compared to the same period last year. The Trump administration began levying a 25% tariff on imported autos from last March 3rd. Last month, South Korean auto exports to the EU increased by 26.7%, and exports to Asia grew by 53.9%, with relatively high growth rates. However, due to the excessively high market share in the US, the total volume of auto exports decreased by 3.8%. The Ministry explained that the full-scale operation of Hyundai's new factory in Georgia, USA also had an impact on the decline in exports to the US. Under the severe blow of Trump's high tariffs on South Korea's auto exports to the US, South Korea and the US will hold the second round of technical consultations on tariffs in Washington soon. South Korea will listen to the demands of the US side and explore the possibility of canceling or reducing tariffs. The Ministry stated that both sides will discuss six areas including balanced trade, non-tariff measures, economic security, digital trade, rules of origin, and business considerations. It is reported that the US has clearly demarcated the boundaries regarding the possibility of adjusting the auto product tariff, so many people predict that negotiations will still be difficult to reach an agreement. Like South Korea, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, whose country's largest export commodity to the US is also autos, reiterated the position of "an agreement that fails to resolve the auto tariff issue is unacceptable" in parliament recently. Prime Minister Abe stated that he would not harm national interests because of excessive obsession with the July 8th reciprocal tariff reduction deadline set by the US. The Wall Street Journal pointed out that the tariff negotiations between South Korea, Japan, and the EU with the US have stalled due to the issue of auto category tariffs. Given that the US decided to reduce the auto tariff on the UK from 25% to 10%, some analysts said that the US adopted a different attitude towards South Korea and Japan, which exported a large number of autos to the US compared to the UK. Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1832643299235849/ Disclaimer: This article only represents the views of the author.