By Jihoon Lee
SEOGWIPO, South Korea (Reuters) -South Korea’s minister of trade and industry Ahn Deuk-geun said on Friday that he met U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and asked again for a waiver from Washington’s tariff measures.
Ahn also said the South Korean delegation would visit the United States next week for technical talks as part of tariff negotiations, which are due to focus on balanced trade and non-tariff barriers among other issues.
The bilateral meeting between Ahn and Greer was held on the sidelines of a two-day gathering of trade ministers from 21 member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) grouping in South Korea’s resort island of Jeju.
It was the second senior-level trade talks between South Korea and the United Sates, after the opening round of negotiations held in late April jointly with then South Korean Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, where they agreed to craft a trade package by July.
The package is expected to encompass four main areas: tariffs and non-tariff measures, economic security, investment cooperation, and currency policy. While touting cooperation in shipbuilding as an important card for negotiations, South Korea has denied that defence costs for some 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in the country will be included.
Just a week after the April meeting, however, South Korea’s Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who had been leading negotiations, resigned, followed by Choi stepping down, raising questions over the progress in trade talks.
Currently, South Korea’s interim leader is the education minister until a new president is elected on June 3.
After U.S. President Donald Trump slapped 25% tariffs on South Korea in April, Seoul was one of the first countries to hold face-to-face talks with Washington, soon after Japan.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said, however, in an interview with Bloomberg News last week that trade deals with the two Asian allies would not be “fast deals”.
“Washington is prepared to move forward in the interim talks, given the range of interests that could be addressed in a potential negotiated agreement,” said Jay Truesdale, a former U.S. diplomat and CEO of TD International, a risk intelligence firm.
“The braking mechanism might be more on the South Korean side, given pre-election jockeying and the need for consultation between Korean business and political stakeholders,” Truesdale said, noting Trump’s desire for quick wins reflected in recent trade talks with Britain and China.
South Korea’s central bank said last month downside risks to this year’s economic growth forecast of 1.5% had increased significantly due to U.S. tariffs.
(Reporting by Jihoon Lee, Ju-min Park; Editing by Ed Davies)
