Former USTR Legal Advisor: "It Will Be Difficult to Ease Tariffs on Automobiles and Steel"

[Financial News] Amid ongoing US-Korea trade negotiations, a trade expert who handled US-Korea trade negotiations during the first Trump administration predicted that it would be very difficult for Korea to lower tariffs on key export items to the US, such as automobiles and steel.
 On the 22nd (local time), Steven Bohn, former USTR Legal Advisor, said in a meeting with Korean correspondents, "If there are people who think they can somehow avoid tariffs on steel and automobiles, they will be disappointed," adding that Korea is a major exporter of automobiles and steel, which makes it different from the previous case of the UK.
 Bohn stated, "Tariffs under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act on steel and automobiles are extremely sensitive issues," and "They (the second Trump administration) consider it a national security tool and will be very cautious about allowing additional access to the US market for those products."
 Furthermore, he predicted that Korea's card of 'expanding investment in the US' to persuade the Trump administration to ease tariffs would not be very effective in negotiations. He said, "Korea saying to Americans, 'We want to invest more in the US,' is not a concession," adding, "Korea would have invested more in the US regardless of tariffs."
 Bohn evaluated that with the current low inflation and strong economy in the US, time is on the Trump administration's side in trade negotiations, and the longer other countries delay, "the higher the price of the deal is likely to rise."
 He stated that with the US facing increasing deficits and losing jobs and manufacturing, there is no choice but protectionism, interpreting the American people's choice of President Trump in the last election as a rejection of free trade.
 He emphasized that countries like Korea, which see a surplus in trade with the US, need to understand this change in the US and recognize the reality that a trade relationship where only the US sees a deficit, as in the past, is impossible.
 Meanwhile, Bohn served at the USTR when the Trump administration negotiated the amendment of the US-Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and is currently a partner at the law firm King & Spalding. He also works as a lawyer representing the US steel company Cleveland-Cliffs, and his perspective is seen as encompassing both the US administration and the industry.

aber@fnnews.com Ji-Young Park, Reporter