Last year, South Korea avoided the Trump administration's steel tariffs... and instead agreed on quotas.
It was considered a win at the time,... but a new report suggests otherwise.
Ko Roon-hee reports.
It's been almost a year since the South Korean government agreed to the Trump Administration's steel import quotas.
But latest analysis by the Washington office of the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency shows South Korea's steel exports to U.S. actually dropped more than other countries that were subject to higher tariffs.

From January to November 2018, South Korea's steel exports to the U.S. dropped 13 percent on-year.
That's a lot higher than other countries, including Japan and China, that recorded drops of 0-point-7 percent and 7-point-3 percent, respectively.

This all comes after Washington agreed to exempt 25 percent tariffs on steel imports from South Korea... but instead limited the amount of imports to the 70 percent level of the annual average Korean steel exports to the U.S. between 2015 and 2017.
China and Japan opted to pay the higher tariffs.
Washington's trade actions were carried out under Section 232 of the U.S. Trade Expansion Act.

A separate analysis by the Mercatus Center, a think tank at George Mason University, pointed out that countries that chose tariffs were able to lessen the damage by getting more tariff exclusions on certain products.
Although South Korea did apply for exclusions, the requests were filed later than China and Japan.

Watchers say the analysis calls into question the South Korean government's decision to choose quotas instead of higher tariffs.
Ko Roon-hee, Arirang News.