[Editorial] Golden hour
The United States will start imposing 25 percent tariffs on all South Korean products on Aug. 1, US President Donald Trump said in a letter addressed to President Lee Jae Myung on Monday.
Trump sent tariff letters to 14 countries, first releasing the letters to South Korea and Japan on his Truth Social platform. He seems to have disclosed tariff letters to the two countries first because of their large trade surpluses with the US — $66 billion for South Korea and $69.4 billion for Japan.
Trump announced "reciprocal" tariffs on April 2. The tariffs took effect on April 9, but he placed a 90-day pause on them that same day to allow time for negotiations.
The pause was to expire Tuesday, but Trump signed an executive order Monday extending to Aug. 1 the deadline for negotiations.
President Lee dispatched national security adviser Wi Sung-lac and Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo to Washington for negotiations, but they failed to draw any agreements on tariffs before the first pause expired.
But it is fortunate that the enforcement of the 25 percent tariff was put off to Aug. 1.
Trump hinted at opportunities for additional negotiations. "These Tariffs may be modified, upward or downward, depending on our relationship with your Country," he said in the letter.
The Lee government's task now is to reduce tariffs as much as possible through intensive negotiations for about three weeks.
However, Trump drew a line, saying in the letter, "We will charge Korea a Tariff of only 25% ... separate from all Sectoral Tariffs." This is ominous for South Korea, which hopes for tariff exemptions and low tariffs for its major export items.
Trump said in the letter, "We ... have concluded that we must move away from these longterm, and very persistent, Trade Deficits engendered by Korea's Tariff, and Non Tariff, Policies and Trade Barriers."
With Trump having mentioned Korea's nontariff policies, responses to this issue have become urgent.
The US has complained of Korea's ban on imports of US beef from cattle aged 30 months or older, its move to enact digital platform regulations that the US claims would discriminate against Big Tech firms and its negative stance on Google's request for permission to transfer high-precision map data of South Korea for use in its mapping services.
Korea must elaborate on its logic of refutation, such as the need to protect domestic tech firms and concerns about national security — and it must present alternatives.
Washington has turned up the trade pressure on Seoul. However, there have been few top-level contacts to deal with the trade issues, barring a singular phone conversation between Lee and Trump. Korea's top security adviser Wi met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday, but they failed to nail down a US-Korea summit.
Trump tends to handle matters in a direct, top-down style.
It is desirable to have eleventh-hour negotiations in the form of a summit before reciprocal tariffs take effect. Cooperation in the shipbuilding industry and a defense spending increase could be good leverage to gain tariff reductions.
A summit should be held before Aug. 1, but time is running out. Diplomacy from Lee is required more than ever. Separately from pushing for a summit with Trump, he could try phone talks with him.
The remaining 22 days are a golden hour in negotiations.
Trump highlighted on Tuesday that there will be no deadline extensions. "TARIFFS WILL START BEING PAID ON AUGUST 1, 2025. There has been no change to this date, and there will be no change," Trump wrote on Truth Social, a day after he sent the tariff letters to Korea, Japan and a dozen other trading partners.
Considering the weight of exports in Korea's economy, the impact of tariffs will be severe.
If Korea-US negotiations fall apart and South Korea is slapped with 25 percent levies as notified, it could flounder in a swamp of zero or minus growth. All-out diplomatic efforts are needed.
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