Inside the frantic final hours of South Korea-US tariff talks
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and his aides remained on high alert throughout the night, continuing to receive reports from Seoul's trade delegation led by Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol in Washington.
The delegation made last-minute efforts reach a deal, under the pressure of the looming Aug. 1 deadline, after which Korea would have been hit with a blanket 25 percent tariff if it failed to strike a deal.
'I kept calling and reporting (to President Lee) at 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. (about the progress in the tariff negotiations),' said Kim Yong-beom, the presidential chief of staff for policy, in a morning briefing. 'I've never seen the president so focused and directly involved.'
The 13-hour time difference between Seoul and Washington kept the presidential office on its toes, deep into the night and eventually into the morning. As Seoul's delegation met with Trump in Washington Wednesday afternoon, US time, the presidential office here alerted the press around 6:07 a.m. that meeting had started.
After the deal was reached, Trump first announced that the 'Full and Complete' deal was reached around social media platform Truth Social at 7:16 a.m. Lee soon posted his own version of the announcement on Facebook within an hour. A press briefing by the presidential office was then announced to take place at 8 a.m.
Kim also indicated that the negotiation process wasn't easy, with the delegation pushing for a 12.5 percent tariff 'until the very end' with Trump adamant on keeping the bottom line at 15 percent.
Tensions escalated when the topic of US' demand for greater access to South Korean markets, especially beef and rice, in exchange for lowering the tariff, was brought up.
'It is widely known that (Washington) has been frequently talking about rice and beef and I believe voices were raised (during the negotiations),' Kim told the briefing.
The topic has become a sensitive issue here, as South Korean farmers have been protesting that further opening the sector to US imports would damage local producers. They are also against lifting the current ban on US beef from cattle aged 30 months or older, pointing to the 2008 mad cow disease scare.
While the two countries eventually agreed that Korea would not further open up its agricultural market, according to the South Korean presidential office, a part of Trump's statement shared via Truth Social said otherwise.
'It is also agreed that South Korea will completely OPEN TO TRADE with the United States and that they will accept American products including Cars and Trucks, Agriculture, etc.,' Trump wrote.
When asked about this, Kim told the briefing that the important thing was the discussion held by the negotiators and that he understood Trump's comments as expressions made from the point of political leader. Kim said, South Korea currently has open trade on 99.7 percent of agricultural products, with the 0.3 percent that still have special protections limited to 10 or fewer items in accordance with the free trade agreement.
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