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This deal would mean the duties will be lowered from the 25% that Trump had threatened in his “tariff letter” to Seoul earlier this month.
Trump also said in a post on social media platform Truth Social that South Korea will “will give to the United States $350 Billion Dollars for Investments owned and controlled by the United States, and selected by myself, as President.”
South Korea’s President Lee Jae-myung said in a Facebook post that his country had concluded the tariff negotiations with the United States after “gathering diverse opinions and refining our strategies,” according to a Google translation of his statement in Korean.
Lee said the $350 billion fund “will play a role in facilitating the active entry of Korean companies into the US market in industries where we have strengths, such as shipbuilding, semiconductors, secondary batteries, biotechnology, and energy.”
Trump also said that as part of the deal, Seoul will purchase $100 billion dollars of LNG or other energy products from the U.S, adding that Seoul had also agreed to invest “a large sum of money for their Investment purposes,” without specifying the amount. U.S. goods will not be subjected to any tariffs, he added. As of 2024, Korea’s effective tariff rate for goods imported from the U.S. was about 0.79%.
Lee said in his post that “I hope that through this, industrial cooperation between Korea and US will be strengthened and the alliance between Korea and America will also be strengthened,” but also added that Seoul will keep “diplomacy centered on national interest” as its top principle.
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