TOKYO — Steel exports to the United States fell sharply in Japan and South Korea in March, dropping 16.6% and 24%, respectively, from a year earlier as Washington’s imposition of 25% tariffs on March 12 hit the trade balance of the two close U.S. trading partners.
President Donald Trump’s new import duties are aimed at reducing the U.S.’s chronic trade imbalances, but the unilateral moves have created tensions with its trading partners and are likely to disrupt global supply chains and slow cross-border trade.
