With

Detroit – as a president Donald Trump threatens to further Increase US TariffsThe biggest impact on the automotive industry outside North America would be the additional taxes for South Korea and Japan.

Eastern Asian countries produced a combined 16.8% of vehicles sold last year in the United States, including a record 8.6% of South Korea and 8.2% of Japan, according to data provided to CNBC by Globaldata.

They were the largest importers of vehicles in the United States outside Mexico – and they have almost no obligations compared to the 25% tariff that Trump threatened Submitting Canada and Mexico.

Automobile manufacturers as General Motors and based in South Korea Hyundai motor Export vehicles without tariffs from South Korea. The country ahead of Japan and Canada last year to become the second largest exporter of new cars in the United States based on sales.

It follows only Mexico, which represents 16.2% of car sales in the United States in 2024, Globaldata reports.

“Obviously, Hyundai has a huge amount of exposure. Behind it is GM … with a relatively large volume of models,” said Jeff Shuster, a global Vice President of Globaldata. “There is potentially a lot of risk here, but it is limited, really limited to these two players.”

Imports from Japan is currently the subject of 2.5% tariff for automakers such as Toyota Motor. Nissan Engine and Honda MotorS Vehicles from Japan represent about 1.31 million vehicles sold last year in the United States

The sales rate in Japan has actually declined in recent years, while South Korea’s exports and sales continue to increase from less than 845,000 in 2019 to over 1.37 million in 2024.

South Korea has 0% car rates, although Trump is negotiating with a commercial deal with the country during its first term in 2018. This agreement was announced to improve the import of vehicles in South Korea, but it was not a little turn to export of vehicles in the US

The deal also did not do a little to increase the export of cars to South Korea, according to data from The International Trade Committee. Exports of passenger vehicles to the United States to South Korea has actually decreased by approximately 16%.

Apart from cars, truck rates exported from South Korea and Japan, in the United States, as well as elsewhere, are 25%.

The tariff is a tax on imports or foreign goods imported into the United States. Companies that import the goods pay rates, and some experts fear that companies will simply transfer additional consumers costs – increasing vehicle costs and potentially reducing demand.

GM is the largest foreign direct investors in the Korea production industry, according to The Automobile Website. It has invested 9 trillion won South Korean (approximately $ 6.2 billion) since the establishment of operations in 2002.

GM produces its own Buick Encore GX and Buick Envista Crossovers, as well as Chevrolet Trailblazer and Chevrolet Trax crossovers, in plants in South Korea. The company has advertised vehicles as the top for the winning growth of a car manufacturer in vehicles with a lower margin, entrance level.

“We take programs costs, improve profitability and create vehicles that customers love, such as the new Chevy Trax and Buick Envista,” GM President Mark Reus said during the company Investors Day in October. “Trax and Envista have helped to raise our share of the US small SUV market to its highest level since 2007.”

GM and Kia declined to comment when they asked about the potential rates for South Korea. Hyundai has announced its operations and investments in the United States, which the car says have amounts to $ 20.5 billion after entering the market in 1986 but did not directly comment on potential tariffs.

“For nearly four decades, Hyundai has been an engine of American growth and innovation, contributing to jobs, economic activity and investment that helped Americans prosper. We welcome the opportunity to work with the new administration to support US production chains protection , and are promoting innovation, “Hindai said on Thursday in an email statement.

TERRES LAU, Dean of the Law College at the University of Syracuse, who previously worked as a commercial expert for Ford MotorHe said the automotive industry was built on free trade. If tariffs are applied, the industry can be adapted but takes time.

“The automotive industry can adapt to everything. Indeed, it can. It will always do the product that customers want to buy because personal mobility and transport is human need all over the world,” he said. “What the automotive industry can’t do well is to rotate a penny.”

Lau claims that one -digit tariff may be “inconvenience”, but after hitting 10% or more, then the extra costs can really start eating in margin or products.

Ford Motor Executive Director Jim Farley last week claims that if Trump will perform tariffs affecting the automotive industry, this should be Make a “comprehensive” look In all countries, even the conditions in North America.

Farley was separating Toyota and Hyundai to bring hundreds of thousands of vehicles a year from Japan and South Korea, respectively.

“There are millions of vehicles that do not apply to these (gradual tariffs),” Farley said during a fourth -quarter profit of investors. “So if we have a tariff policy … It is better to be comprehensive for our industry.

“We can’t just choose one place or another because it’s Bonanza for our import competitors.”

The White House did not respond to comment on the potential tariffs for South Korea.

Trump on Thursday signed a presidential memorandum By setting his plan to impose “reciprocal tariffs” on foreign countries, but did not go into detail about what countries could be targeted.

As a candidate for President Trump, he sailed the opportunity to impose tariffs for the entire board for all US imports. But he also stood up for Congress to accept what he called “Reciprocal Commercial Law,“Which would empathize with the slaps of slaps on the goods of any country that has higher tariffs for goods produced in the United States.

– CNBC’s Kevin Breunner contributed to this report.