As U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 'tariff war,' increasing business uncertainties for companies, the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) has reported a surge in companies seeking consultation on tariff response measures.
On the 9th, KOTRA announced that since opening the 'Tariff Response 119' consultation window on February 18 as part of the government's emergency export measures, a total of 553 consultation inquiries related to business issues in the U.S. region have been received.
This represents a 170% increase compared to the 205 consultation cases related to the Americas region during the same period last year before the 'Tariff Response 119' window was established.
The inquiries were primarily about ▲ tariff-related issues (46%), ▲ finding business partners (16%), and ▲ relocating overseas production bases (10%).
KOTRA operates help desks at 20 trade centers including the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, and plans to launch a tariff simulator program on its website this month, allowing companies to check whether their products are newly subject to changed tariffs.
Kang Kyung-sung, President of KOTRA, stated, "With the successive announcements of U.S. tariff policies, the demand for tariff information among our small and medium-sized enterprises is steadily increasing. We will utilize our overseas trade center network and information capabilities to provide fast and accurate information to our companies facing export difficulties and expand efforts to discover alternative markets."
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