Trade barriers in Korea under fire

[Anchor]

Our government prioritizes the exemption of automobile tariffs in negotiations with the United States.

However, the White House has criticized South Korea and other countries for closing their markets to American cars, contributing to the U.S. trade deficit.

First, we go to Washington for a report from Kim Ji-sook.

[Report]

The White House argued that the decline in market share of the once-dominant American automobile industry is due to unfair trade conditions.

It criticized South Korea, Japan, and the European Union, claiming that these countries have closed their markets.

[Stephen Miller/White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy: "It is impossible under the terms of fair trade if you have two nations with similar per capita GDP to have such uneven trade flows in automobiles."]

In a trade assessment report published before the announcement of mutual tariffs, the U.S. emphasized that expanding access for American cars to the South Korean market is a key priority.

[Donald Trump/President of the United States/Last month: "Worst of all are the non-monetary restrictions imposed by South Korea, Japan and many other nations."]

The U.S. stance, which particularly emphasizes the automobile market, poses a challenge for our government, which aims for tariff exemptions.

It has been reported that the U.S. showed reluctance to lower automobile tariffs during the second ministerial-level negotiations with Japan.

Unlike mutual tariffs by country, it seems difficult to even bring automobile tariffs to the negotiation table.

This situation has raised alarms for our country, which intended to use Japan's negotiations with the U.S. as a reference.

Our government has completed technical consultations with the U.S. at a practical level, but it seems that concerns about negotiation strategies will deepen.

This is Kim Ji-sook from KBS News in Washington.