South Korean officials have asked the Trump administration not to include their country in the US plan to impose high tariffs on trade partners. They pointed out that South Korea already applies low tariffs on American products under their free trade agreement.

On Friday, South Korea’s government said that Deputy Trade Minister Park Jong-won made this request on his Washington visit this week. He met with officials from the White House, the Department of Commerce, and the US Trade Representative’s Office. However, the South Korean Trade Ministry did not reveal how the US officials responded. Park mentioned how South Korean businesses boosted the US economy by making significant investments and pointed out that the nation was already levying low tariffs on free trade partners like the US. He urged South Korea to be left out of US plans to increase import charges on steel and aluminium and impose reciprocal tariffs on trading partners, according to the ministry.

South Korea's leading economic research institute has lowered its growth forecast for the country's economy for the second time since November. It raised concerns about the effects of US President Donald Trump's increasing tariffs and other trade policies designed to reshape global trade. According to the state-run Korea Development Institute, the national economy was expected to increase by 1.6% in 2025, a 0.4 percentage point decrease from its earlier forecast. According to the group's analysts, Trump's tariffs on steel and aluminium are unlikely to have a significant effect on South Korea's economy because those goods make up less than 1% of its exports to the US.

Choi Sang-mok, the acting president of South Korea, convened a meeting with foreign policy and trade officials on Friday to talk about the prospective effects of Trump's trade policies, which include reciprocal tariffs and potential product-specific taxes for pharmaceuticals, vehicles and semiconductors. Choi, who is also South Korea's finance minister, asked officials to study how major economies like the European Union, Japan and China are reacting to Trump's trade policies. He also urged them to improve communication with US officials to clearly express South Korea's stance. In 2024, South Korea's trade surplus with the United States was $55.7 billion. The South Korean trade ministry claims that the nation's tariffs on US industrial imports are almost 0 per cent.