South Korea’s industry minister Kim Jung-kwan said on Thursday the government would continue to closely monitor developments around U.S. tariffs on certain artificial intelligence semiconductor chips to minimise any impact on local companies, the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry met with executives from South Korean semiconductor firms to discuss how to respond to a 25% tariff on some advanced chips announced by the White House on Wednesday, according to a separate statement.
Officials said the measures were not expected to have a major impact on Korean companies because the tariffs do not apply to chips destined for U.S. data centres and startups.
However, the companies warned that a White House fact sheet indicated President Donald Trump could impose broader tariffs on semiconductor imports and related products in order to encourage domestic manufacturing, which would introduce significant uncertainty for the industry, the ministry said.
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