Yeo Han-koo: "Will actively press our case on the US Section 301 probe… If the agreement isn’t upheld, even tougher tariffs could follow"

Yeo Han-koo, the head of trade negotiations at South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, said on the 12th in connection with the US investigation under Section 301 of the Trade Act that “Korea’s trade surplus with the United States largely reflects exports of intermediate goods that arose in the course of expanded manufacturing investment,” adding that he would “actively press the case by underscoring that Korean companies’ activities help rebuild US manufacturing.”

At an emergency briefing that day, Yeo said, “The issue of Korea’s trade surplus with the United States was also raised during the tariff negotiations, but more recently, as investment in the US has expanded across various manufacturing sectors, exports of intermediate goods—such as parts and materials—used in those plants have increased as well,” adding that he would “explain this with statistics and logic.”

The Section 301 probe was launched by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), centering on manufacturing overcapacity and forced labor issues. Yeo explained, “The United States believes that as it seeks to revive its manufacturing base, supply exceeding demand is being produced in multiple countries—including China—and those volumes are flowing into exports, weakening America’s industrial foundation.”

He also said the probe is intertwined with Washington’s broader effort to overhaul its tariff policy framework. After the US Supreme Court ruled that measures related to reciprocal tariffs were unconstitutional, he said, the US government has been moving to restore existing tariff levels by using other legal tools. “The United States has already imposed a global tariff of 10% under Section 122 of the Trade Act, and in the meantime has proceeded with the Section 301 investigation as part of a push to reorganize the tariff regime going forward,” Yeo said.

Against this backdrop, he stressed that implementing the Korea-US trade agreement concluded at the end of last year is of paramount importance. “If there are countries that violate what was agreed with the United States or move in a different direction, we cannot rule out the possibility of measures that go beyond simply restoring existing tariffs,” he said, adding that “faithfully implementing the agreement is important to stabilizing the current trade environment.”

He again underscored that the probe and the controversy involving Coupang are separate matters. “In the process of consultations last week with USTR Representative Jamieson Greer, we also discussed the Coupang-related issue, but our position is that it is a matter of information leakage involving an individual company,” he said, adding that he “strongly conveyed that launching a Section 301 investigation is not appropriate.”

Reporter Ha Ji-eun hazzys@hankyung.com