Trump Announces 25 % Tariff Snapback on South Korean Imports

Tariff threats have long shadowed alliances: Andrew Jackson’s 1833 Force Bill pressured South Carolina much as Reagan’s 1987 100 % duties coerced Japan over semiconductors. Trump’s 2026 snapback reprises that playbook, weaponising access to the world’s largest market to hurry legislative action abroad. Structurally, the move underscores a post-2016 trend of the United States using unilateral tariffs—once a negotiating chip against rivals like China—to discipline treaty allies, blurring the line between security and commerce. Whether the levy really bites may matter less than the precedent: repeated tariff feints already leave equity traders and Asian governments discounting U.S. proclamations, diluting Washington’s credibility. On a century horizon this episode will likely register as part of an era when the liberal trade order frayed, great-power bargaining migrated from summit communiqués to social-media edicts, and mid-sized economies such as South Korea learned to hedge against U.S. policy whiplash by diversifying markets and deepening regional pacts.