Media ININ Economy We Trust
Media IN SEOUL, June 30 2019
U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday called for more balanced trade between Seoul and Washington, and requested South Korean firms expand their investment in the United States. During his visit to Seoul, Trump held a meeting with leaders of South Korean conglomerates, including Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin.
During the gathering, the U.S. president cheered the latest revision of the free trade agreement between the two countries but claimed that there should be more efforts to reduce what he calls “imbalanced” trade. At the request of Washington, the two countries began last year to negotiate ways to revise the original deal, known as the KORUS FTA that went into effect in 2012.
Seoul lowered barriers for U.S. automobiles under the revised free trade deal that was implemented this year. Under the new deal, Washington was able to extend a tariff of 25 percent on Korean pickup trucks by another 20 years to 2041.
South Korea also doubled the 25,000-vehicle unit threshold for U.S. car imports that do not have to comply with domestic industry regulations. The combined amount of trade between South Korea and the United States, meanwhile, reached an all-time high level in 2018 at US$131.6 billion, up 10.3 percent on-year, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.
