Donald Trump, the President of the United States, announced a 25% reciprocal tariff on South Korea, but later, an appendix to an executive order released by the White House indicated a 26% rate. The White House stated that the executive order should be followed.
When President Trump made the reciprocal tariff announcement on the 2nd (local time), the panel he displayed showed a 25% tariff rate for South Korea. Although President Trump did not specifically mention the tariff rate for South Korea during the event, the tariff rates for other major countries were announced based on the figures shown on this panel. The chart of tariff rates for various countries released by the White House on X (formerly Twitter) also listed South Korea’s tariff rate as 25%.
However, the soon-to-be-released appendix of the executive order specified South Korea’s reciprocal tariff rate as 26%. The White House conveyed its stance that the figures listed in the appendix (26%) should be adhered to.
The reason for the discrepancy between the tariff rate indicated on the panel used by President Trump and that in the appendix of the executive order for South Korea remains unknown.
The executive order’s appendix also showed that countries like India, Switzerland, South Africa, the Philippines, Pakistan, Serbia, and Botswana have tariff rates that are 1 percentage point higher than what was shown on the panel President Trump was holding.