U.S. won’t hike tariff once investment bill passes, industry minister assures

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U.S. won’t hike tariff once investment bill passes, industry minister assures

Published: 09 Feb. 2026, 18:31 Updated: 09 Feb. 2026, 22:57

SARAH CHEA
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Korea's Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan speaks during a press briefing on tariff negoitations with the United States on Feb. 9 at the government complex in Sejong. [MINISTRY OF TRADE, INDUSTRY AND RESOURCES]

SEJONG — U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to raise tariffs on Korean goods to 25 percent will be put on hold once Seoul passes a special trade bill with the United States in early March, Korea’s Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan said Monday.

“The central misunderstanding was the idea that Korea acted deliberately to delay its pledged investment while Japan proceeded through project-based arrangements without legislation,” Kim said during a briefing at the government complex in Sejong.

“We explained Korea’s environment, which requires a formal legal framework, and why it takes so long, and that distinction has now been clarified," Kim said. “President Trump had explicitly cited the delayed process as the rationale for reconsidering higher tariffs, and given that context, we assess that the tariff increase will very likely be deferred once the legislation is enacted.”

President Trump on Jan. 26 threatened to reinstate a 25 percent tariff on Korean goods, citing delays in the country’s legislative process.

Korea’s National Assembly on Monday convened a plenary session and approved the formation of a special parliamentary committee tasked with advancing a bill authorizing $350 billion in strategic investments that Korea pledged to make in the United States in exchange for lowering tariffs from 25 percent to 15 percent.

Passage of the bill is regarded as a prerequisite for fulfilling Seoul’s investment commitment.

The newly established committee is scheduled to operate for one month, through March 9, with lawmakers expecting the bill to clear the Assembly within that time frame.

Following the vote, Woo Won-shik, the speaker of the National Assembly, urged lawmakers to address the issue “within February if possible,” given its urgency and consequences.

A 3D-printed miniature model of U.S. President Donald Trump, the Korean flag and the word ″Tariffs″ are seen in this illustration taken on July 23, 2025. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

Asked whether there was a risk that tariffs could be raised in the interim, Kim said the government’s efforts appeared to have been "conveyed" to Washington.

“Publication in the U.S. Federal Register typically takes anywhere from three days to a week, but given that nothing has been published about Korea yet, I think our efforts have been conveyed to the United States,” he said.

Kim also firmly dismissed any connection between the tariff and a recent controversy involving Coupang, calling the two matters “entirely separate.”

“When issues arise, there is a tendency to bundle unrelated problems together in hopes of resolving them all at once,” he said. “At this stage, we are simply raising areas of concern, and the tariff threat was clearly tied to the passage of legislation — nothing more.”

When asked about measures in anticipation of the pending U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the legality of Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, Kim said he had “activated contingency plans," explaining that Seoul was "preparing for all scenarios" regarding the decision, including fully unconstitutional, partially unconstitutional and constitutional rulings.

The ruling has been delayed several times and is now expected as early as Feb. 23.

Meanwhile, Kim also expressed a sense of responsibility for a controversial press release issued recently by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), which linked Korea's high inheritance taxes to an exodus of wealthy people.

U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks at his ″Make America Great Again″ rally in Pickens, South Carolina on July 1, 2023. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

The KCCI's report was widely criticized as “fake news” for allegedly vastly inflating the number of wealthy Koreans who have emigrated overseas and for linking the outflow to Korea's inheritance tax, even though no such linkage appeared in the study on which the press release was based. The Industry Ministry supervises the KCCI's activities.

“Because it came from an institution with the authority of the KCCI, many people were likely to accept it as credible,” Kim said, adding that he will impose appropriate disciplinary measures pending the results of an internal audit.

President Lee Jae Myung weighed in on social media on Saturday, saying that “deliberate fake news intended to distort the judgment of the people — the sovereign architects of policy — is an enemy of democracy,” and called for strict accountability and measures to prevent a recurrence.

BY SARAH CHEA [[email protected]]