South Korea to keep monitoring US chip tariffs to minimise impact, industry minister says

SEOUL, Jan 15 (Reuters) – South Korean Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan said on Thursday that the government will keep monitoring developments on U.S. tariffs on certain AI semiconductor chips to minimise the impact on local industries, according to a ministry statement.

The ministry met with officials from South Korean semiconductor companies to discuss how to cope with the 25% tariff imposed on some advanced chips announced by the White House on Wednesday, a second statement said.

The officials said that since the tariffs will not apply to chips for U.S. data centres and startups, it would not have a significant impact on Korean companies, according to the ministry.

The companies noted, however, that a White House fact sheet indicated that President Donald Trump may impose broader tariffs on imports of semiconductors and their derivative products to incentivise domestic manufacturing, which would create significant uncertainty for the industry, the statement said.

(Reporting by Heejin Kim and Heekyong YangEditing by Ed Davies)