Industrial Research Institute "Trump's 'universal tariff' reduces exports to the U.S. by 13%"

If U.S. President Trump pushes for universal tariffs, Korea's exports to the U.S. will fall from 9.3% to 13.1%.

This also reduced the added value of our economy from about 8 trillion won to 10.6 trillion won.

The Korea Institute of Industrial Economics and Trade said it was estimated by analyzing the effects of Trump's universal tariffs by scenario, focusing on exports to the U.S.

In particular, in the case of automobiles, the main export item, the export reduction effect is expected to reach up to 13.6%, and semiconductors are expected to decrease from as little as 4.7% to as much as 8.3%.

The Korea Institute of Industrial Economics and Trade explained that the biggest impact of Korea's export decline is if the U.S. imposes tariffs of 60% on China, 10% on Mexico and Canada, which have multilateral trade agreements, and 20% on the rest of the country, including South Korea.

The researcher said that the second Trump period is expected to expand the U.S. protectionist stance further, stressing that diplomatic responses are urgently needed to ensure that South Korea can be designated as a U.S. exceptional or differential country for imposing universal tariffs.