South Korea to Negotiate Tariff Deal with Trump Administration Next Week
I guess we will see next week if the ROK can strike a deal or not with the Trump administration. What will be interesting is if a deal is struck will the likely Lee Jae-myung administration in two months stick to it?:
The United States will engage in trade negotiations with South Korea next week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday, stressing the “first mover advantage,” as countries are striving to strike deals with the U.S. to minimize the impact of President Donald Trump’s tariff policy on their economies.
In a Bloomberg interview, Bessent touched on plans for upcoming negotiations with South Korea and Japan. Earlier this month, Trump imposed steep “reciprocal” tariffs on the two allies and dozens of other countries but later placed a 90-day pause on the new tariffs.
“We had Vietnam in last week. We (have) Japanese in on Wednesday. … South Korea next week,” he said. “So it’s going to move fast.”
The secretary underscored there will be a “first mover” advantage as Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba told parliament Monday (Tokyo time) that Japan will not make compromises for the sake of quickly wrapping up tariff talks with the U.S.
“I think there will be advantage to our allies, especially a first mover advantage,” he said. “Usually, the first person who makes a deal gets the best deal.”
You can read more at the link.
Sure, let the PPP ruling government (Yoon as former chief) officials “negotiate” away everything, all they want. They are useless temporary stooges anyway. As soon as the real government of Lee Jae Myung comes to power in June, Korea can just ignore any signed contract. That’s what America does, routinely, so turnabout is fair play.
And no, you’re not going to get South Korea to bite on the $40 billion Alaska LNG project investment, just for the right to buy your expensive gas. Exxon Mobile already said that the project is economically unfeasible and financially makes no sense. Korea will buy LNG from Canada’s newly built Pacific terminal, though.
The current PPP government is making a big mistake.
Trump is desperate now.
Let the desperation stay in place for a little while and it will be possible for Korea to negotiate on more favorable terms.
Show how the right wing are dumb and lack strategic vision and patience.