SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok said on Tuesday that Seoul will try to delay reciprocal tariffs as much as possible in negotiations with the U.S., as the prospect of looming duties threatens to hit the export-reliant economy.
South Korea was among the countries that U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said Washington would sit down with to discuss the tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump. Asia’s fourth-largest economy was slapped with 25% reciprocal U.S. tariffs, which Trump has since paused.
The top priority for the South Korean government was to delay the tariffs “as much as possible” to help cut the uncertainty the country’s businesses face in the global market, Choi said in parliament.
“From our national interest perspective, the idea is to negotiate as much as possible and wrap it up under the new government,” he said in answer to a lawmaker’s question about the direction of Seoul’s response.
South Korea will pick a new president in a snap election on June 3 after Yoon Suk Yeol was ousted this month over his short-lived martial law declaration.
(Reporting by Joyce Lee, Jihoon Lee, Hyunjoo Jin; Writing by Jack Kim; Editing by Ed Davies)
