South Korea to Exempt Tariffs on Overseas-Sourced Critical Minerals

Published: Mar 26, 2026 17:38

Save

On the 25th, it was confirmed that the South Korean government will exempt tariffs of 3–8% on critical minerals such as lithium, graphite, and rare earth elements when domestically owned companies directly produce and import them from overseas.
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy has pre-announced a new regulation outlining tariff exemptions for overseas resource development projects. Under the policy, a total of 14 critical minerals—including lithium, graphite, nickel, cobalt, manganese, copper, zinc, and rare earth elements such as lanthanum, cerium, neodymium, terbium, dysprosium, yttrium, and scandium—will be eligible for duty exemption when brought into the country.
The regulation is set to take effect on April 3.

Data Source Statement: Except for publicly available information, all other data are processed by SMM based on publicly available information, market communication, and relying on SMM‘s internal database model. They are for reference only and do not constitute decision-making recommendations.

For any inquiries or to learn more information, please contact: lemonzhao@smm.cn

For more information on how to access our research reports, please contact:service.en@smm.cn

Related News

1 hour ago

INE to Expand Tradable Options for Qualified Foreign Investors, Adding TSR 20 Rubber and Copper Contracts

According to an announcement by the Shanghai International Energy Exchange, with the approval of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, effective April 22, 2026 (from the night continuous trading session on April 21), the Shanghai International Energy Exchange (hereinafter referred to as INE) will further expand the range of tradable products available to Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors and RMB Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (collectively, Qualified Foreign Investors), with the newly added commodity options contracts open for trading as follows: TSR 20 rubber and international copper options contracts.

1 hour ago

Common.Time.hoursAgo

Copper Inventories in Major Regions of China Continued Destocking During the Week [SMM Weekly Data]

Common.Time.hoursAgo

SMM Copper Wire and Cable Operating Rate Rises Slightly to 70.77%, Market Performance Mediocre

[SMM Copper Wire and Cable Operating Rate] The operating rate of SMM copper wire and cable enterprises was 70.77% this week, up 0.24 percentage points MoM. Overall operating performance was stable, while market performance was relatively mediocre. During the week, the pullback in copper prices suppressed the release of new orders, but enterprises had ample orders on hand and pending delivery, supporting basically stable production. New orders across downstream segments were generally weak, with demand in the home decoration sector particularly mediocre due to rising plastic raw material prices.

Common.Time.hoursAgo