(March 27): South Korea’s top trade official said the government will come up with steps to help the auto industry by next month, after he earlier convened an emergency meeting with business leaders to discuss the new 25% tariff on US auto imports.

“It’s feared the US tariffs will cause significant difficulties for our auto companies’ US exports,” South Korea’s Industry Minister Ahn Duk-geun said in a meeting in Seoul on Thursday. “We will work closely with the industry to find a way to respond, as well as with relevant agencies to announce emergency measures for the automobile industry by April.”

Ahn didn’t elaborate on what sort of measures the government might implement. 

South Korea shipped US$36.6 billion (RM162.2 billion) worth of automobiles to the US last year, making it the third-biggest exporter behind Mexico and Japan, according to the US Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration. 

Bloomberg Intelligence estimates the levies will slice about 0.1 percentage point from South Korea’s pace of gross domestic product growth this year and hit about 20,000 jobs.

Earlier this week, Donald Trump praised Hyundai Motor Co after it pledged to invest a record US$21 billion in the US over the next four years, but that development didn’t allow South Korea to escape the US president’s sweeping orders. Hyundai shares fell as much as 4%, while Kia Corp declined 3%.

“Hyundai has done its part. Now it’s a question of how well the government can use this when they sit down with their US counterparts for negotiations,” said Cho Chuel, an analyst at the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade.

The fresh tariff will be collected starting at 12.01am Washington time on April 3, Trump’s proclamation said.

Uploaded by Tham Yek Lee