U.S. likely to impose reciprocal tariffs as early as Tuesday

Following his 25-percent blanket tariffs on all steel and aluminium imports into the U.S. market U.S. President Donald Trump is now poised to announce reciprocal tariffs on American trade partners.

CHOI Min-jung has our top story.

The U.S. is anticipated to announce plans to impose reciprocal tariffs on other countries, as early as Tuesday, or by Wednesday at the latest.

"I'll be announcing probably Tuesday or Wednesday at a news conference reciprocal tariffs. And very simply, it's if they charge us, we charge them."

Trump claims that introducing reciprocal tariffs will create a fairer trading environment for the U.S.

In theory, the U.S. would apply identical levies on imports from a specific country that the country imposes on American exports.

Pundits say one of the most significant countries impacted by reciprocal tariffs would be India.

In 2022, India imposed an average tariff of 9-point-5 percent on American products, significantly higher than the 3-percent rate the U.S. imposed on Indian goods.

Europe will also likely face reciprocal tariffs.

The U.S. imposes a 2-point-5 percent tariff on cars from BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen, while the EU charges 10 percent on American auto imports.

On top of that, there's the question of how Trump will handle value-added tax in the EU, which averages at over 20 percent.

"The European Union charges as 20% plus, plus, plus of VAT tax, called a VAT tax, very similar, and it cost us an absolute fortune. We are treated so badly."

If Trump takes a country-level approach, countries with which the U.S. has free trade agreements, including South Korea, are likely to remain unaffected, as most products are tariff-free.

"Most of the goods that Korea sells to the United States as well as most of the goods that U.S. sells to Korea are covered by the KOR-U.S. FTA, which means that they have zero tariffs So the reciprocal tariffs will probably not affect Korea that much unless Trump specifically targets Korea."

Given that South Korea posted a record trade surplus with the U.S. last year, there's a possibility that President Trump could target this issue.

Nonetheless, the White House has indicated that reciprocal tariffs may not be implemented immediately this week, as Trump focuses on reviewing existing tariffs.

Choi Min-jung, Arirang News.