Acting President Han Duck-soo asks Korea's business leaders to unite against incoming Trump tariffs

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Acting President Han Duck-soo asks Korea's business leaders to unite against incoming Trump tariffs

Published: 01 Apr. 2025, 18:30 Updated: 01 Apr. 2025, 21:23

PARK EUN-JEE
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SARAH CHEA
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Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

From left, Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul; Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok; Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung; Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong; Acting President Han Duck-soo; SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won; LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo; Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Ahn Duk-geun; National Security Adviser Shin Won-sik; and Sung Tae-yoon, director of national policy at the presidential office, take a photo ahead of their task force meeting on discuss countermeasures to U.S. President Donald Trump's incoming tariffs at the prime minister’s office in central Seoul on April 1. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

Acting President Han Duck-soo vowed to help the heads of Korea's four largest conglomerates weather global trade challenges just days before U.S. President Donald Trump's scheduled unveiling of sweeping reciprocal tariffs.

Han made the statement on Tuesday at the first meeting of the acting president's new Economic Security Strategy Task Force with attendees including Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong, Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung, SK Chairman Chey Tae-won and LG Chairman Koo Kwang-mo alongside Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok, Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul and Ahn Duk-geun, minister of trade, industry and energy. The meeting came three days before Trump is slated to detail his country-based reciprocal tariff plan during a White House Rose Garden event on Wednesday afternoon.

“The recent uncertainty in the global trade environment poses a serious threat to our export-driven economy,” the acting president said during the meeting. “We will work with businesses to devise response strategies while pulling together the public-private network to launch an all-out outreach effort,” he said.

On his first day in office, Trump kept his campaign promise, declaring an end to the EV mandate and signing an executive order directing all agencies to immediately suspend the disbursement of funds allocated under the IRA. The move has impacted Hyundai Motor, which made big bets on EV production, and battery makers like LG Energy Solution.

The U.S. president already slapped a 25 percent tariff on all car imports last week, set to take effect on April 2, which will leave automakers in Korea with prices to pay — tens of trillions of won in profit and even a possible full withdrawal from Korea. He asserted that the taxes were "permanent” and that he wasn't considering further exemptions.

The task force will also devise strategies for a situation where subsidies promised under the CHIPS Act or Inflation Reduction Act are cut or revoked, as Trump has vowed to do.

The four business leaders, at the meeting, called on the government to swiftly implement active support measures — such as tax incentives — for companies facing difficulties linked to the threatened tariffs and withdrawal of subsidies.

“The chairmen of Korea’s four major conglomerates strongly agreed with the idea that the government and private sector must unite to overcome challenges in trade while expressing their willingness to cooperate as much as possible from the perspective of national interest,” the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Energy said in a statement.

NICE Investors Service, a major credit rating agency in Korea, estimated that the 25 percent tariff could lead to an annual operating loss of 8 trillion won at Hyundai Motor, a 34 percent decrease from the current figure.

In the semiconductor sector, multibillion-dollar subsidies in exchange for building production facilities in the United States are on the table.

The Commerce Department decided last December to award Samsung Electronics up to $4.745 billion in direct funding for the Korean tech giant's planned investment of over $37 billion in central Texas.

The department also announced up to $458 million in direct funding and up to $500 million in loans to SK hynix for its investment in Indiana.

BY PARK EUN-JEE [[email protected]]