U.S. Secretary of Treasury, Scott Besant, during an interview with Fox News, mentioned the ‘Dirty 15,’ referring to countries imposing significant non-tariff barriers on the United States. He indicated that through prior negotiation or post-implementation discussions, reciprocal tariffs might be rescinded.
Scott Besant noted that on April 2, reciprocal tariffs would come into effect and said, “We will assign numbers we believe correspond to each country’s tariffs,” acknowledging that for some countries, the numbers could be quite low, while for others, they may be high. He expressed optimism that some tariffs might not be imposed if negotiations occur in advance with the countries involved and added that countries subjected to reciprocal tariffs would likely want to negotiate with the U.S.
Besant also mentioned a group of large countries with which the U.S. has a trade surplus but not much trade volume. Furthermore, he pointed out the ‘Dirty 15,’ which includes countries imposing substantial tariffs on the U.S., demanding a certain amount of domestic production, or conducting non-safety related inspections on U.S. exports, effectively acting as non-tariff barriers.
However, Besant refrained from specifying which countries are among the ‘Dirty 15.’ Nevertheless, the Korean impact seems inevitable, as the U.S. has often labeled South Korea as a major trade deficit country. The possibility exists of significantly revising the South Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which was amended once during Trump’s first administration, or replacing it with a new agreement.
Previously, President Donald Trump named South Korea as a country that unjustly treats the U.S. In his congressional address on the 4th, Trump asserted that “Korea’s tariffs are four times higher than those of the U.S.,” signaling further measures.