A senior official from the United States said April 2 that specific projects tied to Aisa’s pledged investments in the U.S. under a bilateral trade agreement will be announced within the next few weeks.
The official made the remarks during a phone briefing on tariff measures for steel and pharmaceuticals signed by President Donald Trump, noting after referencing Japan’s investment projects that “South Korea also has projects, and those will be announced in the coming weeks.”
Of the $350 billion in U.S.-bound investment pledged by South Korea, $150 billion is designated for the shipbuilding industry, while the remaining $200 billion will be allocated to sectors that enhance the economic and security interests of both countries.
South Korea’s National Assembly passed a special law on U.S. investment last month to institutionalize the $350 billion commitment.
In comparison, Japan agreed last year to invest $550 billion in the United States through tariff negotiations and announced projects including a deepwater oil extraction facility in Texas and a natural gas power plant in Ohio as its first initiatives.
Following a visit to the United States by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and a bilateral summit last month, additional projects — including small modular reactor (SMR) construction in Tennessee and Alabama — were selected as second-phase initiatives.
In Asia, potential first projects under discussion include the construction of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal in Louisiana, as well as nuclear power and energy infrastructure projects.
During the briefing, the official said tariffs on patented pharmaceuticals would be set at 15% for countries with separate trade agreements with the United States, including South Korea, Japan, the European Union, and Switzerland.
Earlier the same day, the United States announced plans to impose tariffs of up to 100% on patented pharmaceuticals for most countries, while applying lower rates of 15% for South Korea, Japan, the European Union, and Switzerland, and 10% for the United Kingdom. Implementation will be delayed by 120 days for large companies and 180 days for small and medium-sized firms.
The official added that companies building production facilities in the United States could see tariffs reduced to 20%, and potentially to 0% during construction if they reach a most-favored-nation pricing agreement with the U.S. government.
For steel, aluminum and copper, tariffs on raw materials will remain at 50%, but the basis for tariff calculation will shift to the actual transaction value in the United States, rather than production costs.
The official said the previous system, which based tariffs on reported production costs, led to distortions as companies lowered reported costs to reduce tariff burdens.
“Those figures were not accurate,” the official said, adding that tariffs will now be calculated at 50% of the actual transaction value — for example, a product priced at $700 per ton would incur a $350 tariff.
Products subject to the 50% tariff include steel coils and aluminum sheets.
For derivative products, a flat 25% tariff will be applied if metal content exceeds 15%, while products below that threshold will be exempt.
The official noted that under the previous system, tariffs on products such as washing machines were calculated through complex formulas combining metal content and country-specific rates. Under the revised system, any derivative product exceeding 15% metal content by weight will be uniformly subject to a 25% tariff.