The President of the United States, Donald Trump, announced this Monday (26) that he will increase tariffs on automobiles, pharmaceutical products and wood imported from South Korea from 15% to 25%.
The measure, according to him, is a direct reaction to the South Korean Legislature’s delay in approving a trade agreement reached between the two countries in July 2025 and reaffirmed during Trump’s official visit to the Asian country in October of the same year.
In a post on the social network Truth Social, Trump accused the South Korean Parliament of not fulfilling the agreement.
“The South Korean Legislature is not honoring its agreement with the United States,” he wrote. He said he had reached a “grand agreement for both countries” with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on July 30, 2025, and publicly questioned why the treaty had not yet been ratified by lawmakers in Seoul.
Trump stated that, although it is the prerogative of the South Korean Legislature to approve the text or not, the lack of progress in the parliamentary process would justify a tougher tariff response from Washington.
“As the Korean Legislature has not enacted our historic trade agreement, which is its prerogative, I am increasing tariffs on automobiles, lumber, pharmaceuticals and all other items with reciprocal tariffs from 15% to 25%,” the president declared.
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The agreement announced in July provided for linear tariffs of 15% on imports from South Korea, 10 percentage points below what Trump had threatened to impose earlier that month.
On the same occasion, the American president stated that Seoul had agreed to allocate US$350 billion in investments “controlled by the United States and selected by him, as president”, a statement that was not publicly detailed.
The increase in tariffs tends to affect strategic sectors more strongly. Hyundai Motor, based in South Korea, is today the Asian country’s largest exporter of new vehicles to the American market, which puts the automotive industry at the center of possible economic repercussions.
