Korea's non-IT exports to U.S. fall 12.8% after tariffs: BOK report

Korea's exports of non-IT products to the United States fell more than 10 percent after Washington imposed a series of tariffs early last year, but their share of the U.S. market declined only modestly, a central bank report showed on Friday.

According to a report published by the Bank of Korea (BOK), exports of products subject to U.S. levies, including the 10 percent reciprocal tariffs, declined 12.8 percent annually from the second quarter of 2025 to the first quarter of 2026.

During the cited period, Korea's share of the U.S. market for such products fell by 0.4 percentage points compared to declines of 1.9 percentage points for China, 2.1 percentage points for Japan and 2.2 percentage points for Germany.

The BOK report attributed the relatively modest decline in Korea's market share to higher tariff rates imposed on Chinese products.

“The relatively high tariffs imposed on Chinese products caused Korean goods to partially replace [them] in the U.S. market,” the report said. “There were multiple instances in which Korea's market share increased in specific product categories, whereas China's market share in the U.S. declined.”

Japanese and German products rarely replaced Chinese goods, it added.

U.S. President Donald Trump imposed a 10 percent tariff, the “fentanyl tariffs,” on Chinese goods in February 2025 over Beijing's role in the synthetic opioid crisis. The rate was raised to 20 percent the following month.

He imposed a 50 percent flat tariff on all imported steel and aluminum in March and slapped a 25 percent tariff on vehicles from Korea. The tariff on vehicles was later lowered to 15 percent under a trade deal between Korea and the United States.

Reciprocal 10 percent duties were also slapped on imports from U.S. trading partners, including Korea, in April. Semiconductors, computers and other IT products were exempt from the reciprocal tariffs.

The reciprocal tariffs, meanwhile, were blocked by a U.S. court ruling earlier this year.

Yonhap