White House official accuses S. Korea of flooding U.S. with subsidized steel

On October 8, a White House official accused South Korea of inundating the United States with heavily subsidized steel and steel shipped from China. Peter Navarro, the White House senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, made the claim on social media platform X. He vowed to "crack down" on these practices, highlighting a video clip of his recent remarks to reporters about the issue.

Navarro specifically pointed to South Korea as the country flooding the U.S. market with its subsidized steel and China's transshipped steel. Despite high tariffs of 50% on steel, the official asserted that South Korea continues to circumvent these measures by cheating on import regulations. Under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, foreign steelmakers in the U.S. face tariffs if their imports are deemed to threaten national security, as well as other trade remedy measures.

South Korean Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan previously urged Washington to consider the challenges faced by Korean companies investing in the U.S. and support their efforts by easing tariffs on necessary equipment and materials. In September, Hyundai-POSCO Louisiana Steel LLC, a joint venture between South Korea's Hyundai Motor Group and POSCO Holdings, began construction of an electric arc furnace-based integrated steel mill in Louisiana, scheduled for completion in 2029.

This project is part of Hyundai Motor Group's $26 billion U.S. investment plan announced last year. POSCO holds a 20% stake in the project.