WASHINGTON — Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Kim Jung-kwan said the United States agreed under the Korea-U.S. trade deal to treat Korean semiconductors no less favorably than those of competing countries, and that talks on U.S. chip tariffs are continuing in that spirit.
Kim made the remarks to reporters after an investment ceremony and investor roundtable held in Washington on the 3rd. "When we negotiated tariffs with the United States in October last year, the overall broad principle was already stated — that Korean semiconductors would receive treatment no less favorable than that of competing countries," he said, adding that he believes discussions are proceeding under that principle. A joint fact sheet on the Korea-U.S. trade agreement states that product-specific tariffs on Korean-made semiconductors will be set at levels no less favorable than those applied to countries whose trade volume exceeds Korea's.
Asked whether he expects U.S. chip tariffs on Korea to be designed along the lines of the U.S.-Taiwan agreement, Kim said such an approach was possible but that the Taiwan deal has not been completed. "Discussions are still under way within Taiwan's legislature," he said. Taiwanese companies including TSMC have been promised product tariff quotas of up to 2.5 times their facility capacity while building new semiconductor production plants in the United States, and up to 1.5 times after construction is finished.
On the timing of an announcement confirming the first U.S. investment project, Kim said there had been no change to the plan to wrap it up during September. "It is not so much a particular major problem as a matter of various domestic procedures we are going through," he said.
