Seoul, May 26 The United States asked South Korea to resolve various non-trade barrier issues in their latest round of working-level trade talks, a Seoul trade official said on Monday, as the latter is seeking to get a reduction or exemption of the Donald Trump administration's tariffs.
In last week's working-level consultations, Washington urged Seoul to handle non-trade barrier issues listed on the 2025 National Trade Estimate (NTE) Report on Foreign Trade Barriers issued by the office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) in March, the official familiar with the matter said on the condition of anonymity, without providing further details, reports Yonhap news agency.
The NTE report had touched on a wide range of Korea's non-tariff measures, including its import ban on American beef from cattle aged 30 months or older, South Korea's "offset" defence trade policy, emission-related regulations on imported cars and pricing policies for pharmaceuticals.
The two countries held their second round of "technical discussions" in Washington last week as agreed in a meeting between South Korean Industry Minister Ahn Duk-geun and USTR Jamieson Greer on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) trade ministers' meeting held on South Korea's southern island of Jeju earlier this month.
The discussions were centred around six areas -- balanced trade, non-tariff measures, economic security, digital trade, the country of origin issue and commercial considerations, according to Seoul's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.
South Korea has been seeking to gain a full exemption or reduction of the Trump administration's 25 percent reciprocal tariffs for the country, as well as sectoral tariffs on steel, automobile and other imports, by crafting a package deal on tariff and economic cooperation issues by July 8 -- when the 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs will end.
Though details of Washington's requests have not been disclosed, industry watchers say the U.S. may have raised issue with Seoul's beef imports and high tariffs on imported rice.
"Among the list of requests from the U.S., there are some things that can be resolved by easing regulations, but there are also matters concerning market access, which require necessary procedures under the trade treaty procedure act," another senior trade official said, asking not to be named.
Trump has referenced South Korea's rice tariffs as an example of trade barriers by foreign countries in his speech announcing the country-by-country reciprocal tariffs in early April, claiming the country slaps duties of more than 500 percent on U.S. rice.
South Korea's baseline tariff on rice imports stands at 513 percent, but the country actually implements only a 5 percent tariff on a yearly import quota of up to 132,304 tons of U.S. rice.
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