WASHINGTON: United States President Donald Trump said on Wednesday (Jul 30) the US will charge a 15 per cent tariff on imports from South Korea as part of a deal that eases, for now, tension with a top-10 trading partner and key Asian ally.
The arrangement, announced shortly after Trump met with Korean officials at the White House, came during a blizzard of trade policy announcements ahead of a self-imposed Aug 1 deadline.
That is when Trump has promised that higher tariffs will kick in on US imports from a range of countries. Imports from South Korea, a powerhouse exporter of computer chips, cars and steel, faced a 25 per cent rate.
“I am pleased to announce that the United States of America has agreed to a Full and Complete Trade Deal with the Republic of Korea,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The negotiations were an early test for South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, who took office in June after a snap election. He said the deal had eliminated uncertainty in the export environment and set US tariffs lower than or at the same level as major competitors.
“We have crossed a big hurdle,” Lee said in a post on Facebook. Trump said Lee would visit the White House “within the next two weeks” for his first meeting with the US president.
Trump said South Korea had agreed to invest US$350 billion in the United States in projects selected by Trump and to purchase US$100 billion of liquefied natural gas and other energy products. Both steps have been major priorities for Trump, a Republican, in other trade deals.
Of the US$350 billion investment fund, US$150 billion was aimed at a shipbuilding partnership while US$200 billion would include funds for chips, nuclear power, batteries, and biologics, Kim Yong-beom, policy chief from the South Korean presidential office, told a briefing.
Kim said some existing investment plans by South Korean companies would be part of the fund, and that they had ensured there would be safeguards over how the funds were used.
It was not immediately clear how the investment deals would be structured, where the financing would come from, over what time frame they would be implemented and to what extent their terms would be binding on the parties involved. Trump said additional South Korean investments would be announced later.
