SEOUL (AFP) – Top trade officials from South Korea, Japan and China will meet this weekend in Seoul to discuss economic cooperation, according to a South Korean government source.
The announcement of the rare meeting – the first in five years – comes days after United States (US) President Donald Trump announced the imposition of tariffs on vehicles not built on US soil.
Seoul and Tokyo are major auto exporters, and China has also been hit hard by US tariff measures. A South Korean government source told AFP that the “Trilateral Economic and Trade Ministers’ Meeting” will be held tomorrow morning in Seoul.
The meeting is expected to be attended by South Korea’s Industry Minister Ahn Duk-geun and his Japanese counterpart, Yoji Muto, plus China’s Wang Wentao.
There will also be bilateral meetings between the nations. South Korea’s Minister Ahn said on Thursday that because 50 per cent of South Korea’s automobile exports go to the US, the tariffs “raise concerns over significant damage to the industry”.
“The process of responding to US tariff measures will not be resolved in a single round of talks, and is expected to take time,” said Ahn during an emergency meeting. “Despite growing global uncertainties, the government will stand with our companies throughout this process,” he added.
Trump imposed more blanket tariffs on Chinese imports earlier this month, following a similar move last month – levies expected to hit hundreds of billions of dollars in total trade between the world’s two largest economies.
Commerce Minister Wang Wentao warned that US tariffs threatened to “disrupt the stability of the global industrial supply chain and hinder the development of the global economy”.
He told reporters that “if the United States continues down this wrong path, we will fight to the end”. The Japanese government’s spokesman also that the US tariffs on auto imports were “extremely regrettable.”
Japan is home to the world’s top-selling carmaker Toyota, and the health of the auto industry impacts many sectors, from parts manufacturing to steel and microchips. Of the country’s JPY21.3 trillion of US-bound exports in 2024, cars and other vehicles accounted for roughly a third.
