REUTERS
April 21, 2025 at 10:30 JST
U.S. President Donald Trump signs an executive order about tariffs increase, flanked by U.S. Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 13. (REUTERS)
SEOUL--South Korea has found rising attempts to disguise foreign products as Korean exports, mostly from China, to avoid U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs, its customs agency said on Monday.
The Korea Customs Service said it has found 29.5 billion won ($20.81 million) worth of country-of-origin violations from the first quarter, with U.S.-bound shipments accounting for 97% of the total, after a special probe last month.
That compared to a total of 34.8 billion won worth of violations for all of 2024, among which U.S.-bound shipments accounted for 62%.
Since taking office in January, Trump has introduced big tariffs on various products and countries that started to come into force in March.
South Korean officials have said there could be a rise in attempts by foreign companies, such as those in neighboring China, to use South Korea, which is a major U.S. ally and has a free-trade pact, as a bypass to avoid tariffs and regulations.
Trump slapped 25% tariffs on South Korea this month, which were later suspended for three months. The U.S. now imposes 145% tariffs on China after back-and-forth retaliatory actions, which economists say have severed trade between the world’s two biggest economies.
Monday’s findings include 3.3 billion won worth of cathode materials used for batteries, imported from China and shipped to the U.S. with South Korea falsely marked as the country of origin, to avoid already high tariffs in January even before Trump’s tariffs took effect.
In March, 19.3 billion won worth of surveillance cameras were imported from China in parts and reassembled in South Korea to bypass U.S. restrictions on Chinese communication devices.
The Korea Customs Service has launched a special task force to prevent illegal export attempts and plans to come up with more specific response measures to protect domestic companies.
China hits U.S. soybean firms, halts log imports as it steps up retaliation against Trump tariffs
March 5, 2025
South Korea's top think tank lowers economic growth projection, citing Trump’s tariffs
February 12, 2025
Trump’s sharp tariff hikes could speed up China's shift to new markets and offshore factories
November 27, 2024
U.S. trade czar Lighthizer's advice for Biden on China: 'Hold their feet to the fire'
December 17, 2020
A peek through the music industry’s curtain at the producers who harnessed social media to help their idols go global.
A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry
Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors.
Cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.
A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II
