Trump is back...South Korea's export and industry uncertainties grow

Tactile to U.S. policy changes such as 'semiconductor and electric vehicles'
Keep the public in check...Possible demand for South Korea to reduce supply chain links
Strengthening America First...Concerns over Resurrection of 'tariff barriers'

[Anchor]
Former President Trump's victory in the U.S. presidential election has deepened the concerns of our industry.

It is observed that uncertainty has increased as the possibility of a retreat of the Semiconductor Support Act and the IRA Act and the tariff barrier could be increased.

Reporter Park Ki-wan reports.

[Reporter]
What our industry is most paying attention to is the change in the U.S. government's policy regarding semiconductors, automobiles, and batteries, which are "exporting beneficiaries."

This is because there is a growing possibility of stopping the policies that the Biden administration has been pushing for.

[Donald Trump / Former U.S. President (last month 28): (Biden's) semiconductor deal is very bad. It's spent billions of dollars trying to get rich companies to come to the United States. They won't give us a good company anyway. All we have to do is put tariffs on it.]

The key is the Semiconductor Support Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the possibility of a retreat of the IRA Act,

There is also great concern that the subsidies promised by our companies could disappear instead of large-scale investments.

The IRA law retreat, which the electric vehicle and battery industries are paying attention to, is less likely to become a reality due to opposition within the Republican Party.

Another uncertainty is checking China.

As Trump heralded 'decoupling' to stop expansion of AI-era China,

We can ask our companies to reduce exports of major strategic industries to China or cut off supply chain connections.

On top of that, the strengthening of U.S. priority is expected to revive tariff barriers.

[Donald Trump / Former President of the United States (last June): We have tremendous economic power, but we won't last long unless we're careful. It's going to break down with everything else. But if China or other countries do something bad, we will impose something very serious: tariffs.]

Amid dark clouds in the Korean steel, chemical and automobile industries, pessimism has also been raised that trade exports will decrease significantly.

The government has emphasized the solidity of the Korea-U.S. cooperative relationship as a partner

The international trade environment that will change has not been relaxed.

The government has requested an increase of 600 billion won in reserves next year in preparation for possible changes caused by the U.S. presidential election.

[Choi Sang-mok / Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Strategy and Finance: Isn't there an international situation and a U.S. presidential election this year? It is an increase of about 600 billion won (reserve) in the possibility of change in that area.]

Both the government and businesses are paying keen attention to how Trump's return will affect our economy in the future.

I'm Park Kiwan of YTN.


Video Editing: Jung Kook-yoon
Design: Im Saetbyul