White House fixes S. Korea's reciprocal tariff rate at 25%

Confusion emerged over the Trump administration's new tariffs set for South Korea, but now, the White House officially says the tax rate is set at 25-percent, not 26, as previously notified.

Meanwhile, Wall Street saw its worst drop since the pandemic five years ago following the tariff announcement.

Lee Soo-jin explains.

The reciprocal tariff imposition on South Korea has been finalized at 25 percent.

On Thursday local time, the annex to the executive order on the White House website was amended to 25 percent, from 26 percent.

The amendment was made without a clear explanation.

This comes after a panel presented by U.S. President Donald Trump at a Rose Garden event the day before listed the reciprocal tariff on South Korea as 25 percent, while the annex of the executive order stated it as 26 percent, causing confusion about the discrepancy.

When the White House initially did not indicate any intention to make a correction, the South Korean government demanded one, arguing that under Trump's formula, Korea's tariff rate should be 25 percent, and not 26 percent.

And this one percent difference is significant as it amounts to roughly 1-point-3 billion U.S. dollars.

Meanwhile,.. the impact of the announcement of Trump's larger-than-expected tariffs was immediate in stock markets, with Wall Street on Thursday seeing its worst day since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

The S&P 500 plunged nearly 5 percent, and the Dow Jones, 4 percent, both suffering the biggest one-day drop since June 2020.

And the tech-heavy Nasdaq, dropped nearly 6 percent, the largest decline since March 2020.

Trump, however, in response to a question about the severe impact of his tariffs, dismissed concerns.

"The markets are going to boom, the stock is going to boom, the country is going to boom, and the rest of the world wants to see is there any way they can make a deal."

But market analysts are less optimistic.

"It is nerve-wracking to watch markets go down by a couple of percent in a day, but my career spans back to the 1987 crash . So this one still ranks up there and is very concerning. Any time markets are down with this amount of vehemence, if you will, especially on unexpected news, it's worrisome."

Analysts say the sharp decline reflects investor concerns that U.S. companies reliant on global supply chains could soon be subject to retaliatory measures from trading partners.

In the meantime, Trump says he is open to negotiations.

Lee Soo-jin, Arirang News.