The orange baby just sent a “letter” (evidently on its twitter platform) to South Korea threatening to impose large tariffs on South Korean goods unless they do something about the “Trade Deficits (sic) engendered by your Tariff, and Non Tariff, Policies and Trade Barriers.”
South Korea and the US have had a free trade agreement, in which there aren’t any tariffs or barriers, since 2012. It’s called KORUS FTA. If we buy more cars made in South Korea than South Korea buys from us, that’s because their cars are higher quality, more efficient, and less expensive than Ford, GM, and Stellantis (Chrysler) products. And while the electric vehicle specialists in the US, including Tesla, Lucid, and Rivian are focusing on expensive and very large cars and trucks designed exclusively for the US market, Hyundai and Kia EVs are aiming at the low end of the market that regular people can afford.
The US government could try to do something about this, like investing in charging infrastructure, but the orange baby’s regime just cancelled that. The US market for vehicles is not going to resemble the South Korean market any time soon, and wouldn’t you think a supposed “businessman” (even one with a lifelong history of failures and bankruptcies) would understand that a big US auto manufacturer is unlikely to see the South Korean market segment as particularly important? They do sell some cars there, just like some people in the US buy kimchee, but it’s a niche.
