By Joyce Lee, Hyunjoo Jin and Nandita Bose
SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – South Korea and the United States agreed to craft a trade package aimed at removing new U.S. tariffs before the pause on reciprocal tariffs is lifted in July, Seoul’s delegation said after the first round of trade talks in Washington.
The U.S. and South Korea had a “very successful” meeting on Thursday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said afterwards.
“We may be moving faster than I thought, and we will be talking technical terms as early as next week,” he told reporters.
Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer met with South Korean Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok and Industry Minister Ahn Duk-geun.
Neither side offered details on possible areas of agreement, but South Korea said in a statement it requested exemptions from reciprocal and item-specific U.S. tariffs, and offered cooperation on shipbuilding and energy as well as addressing trade imbalances.
“I think we had a very good start today,” Ahn later told reporters.
“During the meeting, the two countries reached a broad agreement on the framework for future discussions,” he said. “We also agreed to hold working-level talks next week to determine the scope and structure of talks, with the goal of producing a ‘July package’ by July 8.”
Choi said more talks will be held in South Korea on May 15-16 with Greer.
“Discussions will focus on four key areas: tariffs and non-tariff measures, economic security, investment cooperation, and currency policy,” Choi said.
AUTOS IN FOCUS
The discussions with South Korea took place as Bessent and other Trump administration trade team members met with a multitude of foreign finance and trade officials looking to strike tariff deals on the sidelines of this week’s meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group in Washington.
South Korea, which faces 25% U.S. reciprocal tariffs, is among the first countries the Trump administration has initiated trade talks with, after its first face-to-face discussions last week with Japan, another key Asian ally slapped with 24% tariffs. Bessent was also due to meet Japanese officials on Thursday.
Choi said South Korea focused in particular on the automobile sector, which faces the greatest negative impact.
He also said South Korea’s finance ministry and U.S. Treasury will hold separate discussions on currency policy at the request of Bessent.
Choi told South Korean reporters that there was no mention of defense costs during the talks. Trump has previously said that sharing the cost of keeping U.S. troops in South Korea would be part of “one-stop shopping” negotiations with Seoul. But South Korea’s foreign minister said defense costs are separate matters from trade talks.
Ahn said there was no mention that a bilateral free trade deal signed in 2007, and revised during Trump’s first term, would be renegotiated.
The South Koreans also asked for understanding from the Americans that the process could be affected by the “political schedule,” apparently referring to the looming June 3 snap election in South Korea, which was called after former President Yoon Suk Yeol was ousted for his role in imposing martial law in December.
Acting President Han Duck-soo has expressed willingness to reach a deal, saying the country will not fight back against Washington as it owes the U.S. for its recovery from the 1950-1953 Korean War.
That has faced pushback from the liberal opposition who are favoured to win in the election, accusing Han of rushing talks for political gain.
Experts have also noted it may be difficult for South Korea to make any firm commitment on energy projects and defence costs under an acting president.
Trump’s energy security council plans to host a summit in Alaska in early June, when it hopes Japanese and South Korean officials will announce commitments to the Alaska LNG project, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
(Reporting by Joyce Lee and Hyunjoo Jin in Seoul and Nandita Bose in Washington; Additional reporting by Heekyong Yang, Yena Park and Youn Ah Moon, Cynthia Kim and Jihoon Lee; Writing by Josh Smith in Seoul; Editing by Tom Hogue, Sandra Maler and Jacqueline Wong)
