Steel products piled up at Pyeongtaek Port. Yonhap News.

The U.S. Department of Commerce announced on the 19th (local time) that it has added 407 product categories to the list of steel and aluminum derivative products subject to tariffs under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) of the Department of Commerce stated on its website that, as a result, a 50% tariff rate will be applied to the steel and aluminum content of these products.

BIS explained that "today's action applies to wind turbines and their parts and components, mobile cranes, bulldozers, other heavy machinery, railway vehicles, furniture, compressors and pumps, and hundreds of other products."

This measure is in accordance with Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act. This provision grants the president the authority to restrict imports through appropriate measures, such as tariffs, if the import of certain items is deemed to threaten U.S. national security.

Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security, Jeffrey Kessler, stated, "Today's action supports the continued revitalization of the U.S. steel and aluminum industries by expanding the application of steel and aluminum tariffs and blocking evasion routes."

It is anticipated that the related industries in South Korea will also suffer damage from this U.S. action.

The Korea International Trade Association (KITA) previously analyzed in a reference document that many of the newly included tariff items include refrigerators and freezers, automotive parts, elevators, transformers, tractor parts and engines, wires and cables, elevators, forklift trucks, and construction machinery such as cranes and loaders.

KITA also pointed out that other automotive parts and engine parts, which were not previously included in the tariff targets for automotive parts, have been added to the list, and that for some cosmetic containers, the high aluminum content makes tariff impacts unavoidable.

KITA specifically stated that the value of South Korean imports subject to the newly added tariffs reached $11.89 billion (approximately 16.5 trillion won) based on last year's figures.

Yonhap News