30-07-2025
South Korea Reaches Trade Deal With Trump
President Trump announced a trade deal with South Korea on Wednesday, putting 15 percent tariffs on South Korean goods, much higher than they were just a few months ago but lower than Mr. Trump had threatened.
Under the terms, South Korea will make $350 billion in investments in the United States and purchase $100 billion of liquefied natural gas. Mr. Trump said the South Korea's president, Lee Jae-Myung, would visit Washington in two weeks to make further announcements.
The agreement follows others that have been concluded in Asia. Although many details remain to be hammered out, the White House has announced that goods from Japan and the European Union will face 15 percent tariffs, the Philippines and Indonesia 19 percent, and Vietnam 20 percent. Among the Asian countries still without deals are India, Malaysia, Taiwan and Thailand. The Trump administration and China have agreed to a truce after inflicting sharp trade penalties on one another in the spring.
The South Korean government did not immediately issue a statement.
It's been a long road for the South Koreans, who had to start over when a new government was elected in June. President Lee Jae Myung, five weeks into the job, received a reprieve when Mr. Trump extended his original July 9 deadline to Aug. 1.
However, the country's negotiators had to compete for time with Trump administration officials who were attempting to conclude dozens of agreements at once on difficult issues such as market access for agricultural goods.
South Korea's economy is extremely dependent on exports of goods and services, which accounted for 44 percent of its economic output in 2023. That's twice the rate of its neighbor Japan, another export driven economy. South Korea ran a trade surplus of $66 billion with the United States in 2024, nearly four times what it was in 2018, when Mr. Trump revised the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement.
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