The US to Slap 200% Tariff on Products Made by POSCO Vietnam

The U.S. Department of Commerce has announced that it will slap tariffs of over 200% on products made by POSCO Vietnam, claiming that the POSCO subsidiary in Vietnam processes materials from China into products and sell them to the U.S. This marks the first time that an overseas corporation of a Korean company falls victim to the escalating trade war between the U.S. and China.

POSCO recently filed a complaint against the U.S. Commerce Department's preliminary judgment to levy retaliatory tariffs on cold-rolled steel sheets produced by POSCO Vietnam. The complaint was a rebuttal of the U.S. government’s announcement in December last year that they would punish POSCO Vietnam for making products with Chinese materials and exporting them to the U.S. POSCO has repeatedly asserted that products made with materials from China are sold to the Korean market, but the U.S. Department of Commerce has not accepted it.

Washington claims that POSCO Vietnam processed Chinese materials into cold-rolled steel plates and exported them to the U.S., so POSCO Vietnam’s export products should be regarded as Chinese cold-rolled steel plates. For this reason, U.S. authorities are saying that a 265.79% tariff on Chinese cold-rolled steel plates should be applied to those of POSCO Vietnam.

While the final judgment is expected to come out this year, industry watchers believe POSCO will not be able to avoid high tariffs. They say the United States will impose tough sanctions to put pressure on China as the trade war between the two is intensifying.

"Even though there are some cases where POSCO Vietnam makes products with Chinese materials and sell them in Vietnam, POSCO Vietnam has not exported them to the United States," said a steel industry official. "The U.S. uses Korea to put pressure on China."