Prospects for U.S. International Economic Policy Under the New Protectionism

Donald Trump, the former President of the U.S., shook the world trade system by imposing a significantly high rate of tariffs (up to 25%) on most of the Chinese imports in 2018 and high tariffs on U.S. imports of steel (25%) and aluminum (10%). Based on the empirical analysis conducted in our research in 2021, it is difficult to say that the policy effect that President Trump initially expected was achieved as the measures had a negative effect on industrial production. The international economic policy actions of the Biden administration so far, however, are not likely to be significantly different from those of the Trump administration except for cooperating with its allies. These situations require us to think about how to prepare our strategies in order to secure our interests. First, South Korea needs to take advantage of the benefits for our direct investment to the U.S. provided by the U.S. federal government and strengthen cooperation with the U.S. in the supply chain based on norms. Second, we need to reach an amicable agreement with the U.S. on trade remedies that have already been applied such as the Section 232 steel quotas