Anchor: U.S. President Donald Trump says tariffs on automobile imports will be around 25 percent, while tariffs on semiconductors and pharmaceuticals will be at least that much to start and will increase substantially. With an announcement coming as soon as April 2, South Korean exporters are making plans to expand production in the U.S.
Kim Bum-soo has more. 

Report: U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to charge about 25 percent tariffs on imported cars and similar levies on semiconductor and pharmaceutical imports.

[Sound bite: US President Donald Trump]
(Reporter: Mr. President, have you decided specifically what the auto tariff rate should be?)
“Yeah, I probably will tell you that on April 2, but it’ll be in the neighborhood of 25 percent.”

Speaking to reporters Tuesday at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, Trump revealed the plans as he seeks to reshape global trade. 

[Sound bite: US President Donald Trump]
(Reporter: (inaudible) ... semiconductors and pharmaceuticals?)
“It’ll be 25% and higher, and it’ll go very substantially higher over a course of a year. But we want to give them time to come in because, as you know, when they come into the United States, and they have their plant or factory here, there is no tariff, so we want to give them a little bit of a chance.”

Under the South Korea-U.S. free trade agreement signed in 2007, South Korea-based auto manufacturers export their products to the U.S. tariff-free. 

But with Trump pushing ahead with his America First agenda, South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Group is planning to increase production of its Hyundai, Kia and Genesis brands within the U.S. to nearly one-point-two million cars a year.

Of the one-point-seven million cars the auto giant sold in the U.S. last year, more than one million were manufactured in South Korea.

For the country’s semiconductor industry, the U.S. market is comparatively less important accounting for only about seven-point-five percent of its global exports, but a 25 percent tariff is sure to have an impact.

Samsung Electronics is currently building a foundry in Texas and SK hynix is building an advanced packaging facility for artificial intelligence products in Indiana.
Kim Bum-soo, KBS World Radio News.