South Korea narrowly avoided steep US tariffs on Thursday after sealing a high-stakes trade deal with Washington, capping new import duties at 15 per cent, instead of the 25 per cent originally set to take effect from Friday. As reported by The Korea Herald, in exchange, Seoul pledged a USD 350 billion investment package along with USD 100 bn energy imports from US and most favoured nation status to US, in key sectors which helped in reinforcing cap on tariffs.