PPP calls US tariff hike a 'trade disaster,' demands apology from Lee government

The People Power Party on Friday criticized the United States' decision to impose an additional 12.5% tariff on South Korean products as a "trade disaster caused by the Lee Jae Myung government's incompetent diplomacy," urging the government to apologize and overhaul its diplomatic and trade leadership.

Park Sung-hoon, the PPP's chief spokesperson, issued a statement saying the decision exposed "the dismal track record of the Lee Jae Myung government's trade diplomacy, which had been busy congratulating itself on so-called national-interest-centered pragmatic diplomacy."

Park said the Donald Trump administration had finalized the additional 12.5% tariff on South Korean products under Section 301 of the Trade Act, adding that the rate exceeds those applied to the EU and Taiwan. He said it was "a clear disadvantage" that South Korea — which has a free trade agreement with the United States — was being treated no differently from countries with no such trade pact.

Park said the situation was "a foreseeable outcome of repeated friction with the United States, a traditional ally, since the Lee government took office," and criticized the government's "incompetence and complacency" for saddling Korean companies with a crushing tariff burden and unequal competitive conditions.

The PPP said the government had failed to respond adequately despite early warning signs from Washington. Park said the Office of the United States Trade Representative had been conducting an investigation and sending warning signals for months, yet the government "sat on its hands, lost in groundless optimism." He said the EU and Taiwan had held their tariff rates to around 10 percent through swift trade diplomacy, while South Korea fell behind in the competition among allies by failing to respond proactively to shifts in international norms or deploy a sophisticated trade strategy.

Park also said Korean export companies now face "a tilted playing field from the starting line in the fiercely competitive global market," adding that the government had effectively blocked the export channels that business leaders had built through years of hard work.

The PPP also raised concerns about further trade pressure ahead. Park warned that the USTR had signaled additional investigations into "structural overproduction" and "digital non-tariff barriers," and said the government had failed to grasp the gravity of the situation even as South Korea's trade isolation deepened.

Park urged President Lee Jae Myung to "immediately apologize to the public and to businesses for this trade disaster, carry out a full overhaul of the diplomatic and trade leadership, and redesign the trade diplomacy strategy toward the United States from scratch."