Seoul pulls out all stops for deal as US tariff suspension nears end
South Korea's Lee administration is scrambling to take the edge off the United States' new tariffs, as the nation's top security adviser departed Seoul on Sunday to travel to Washington and join forces with Seoul's trade minister who arrived there the day before.
Their trip to Washington came as the deadline for the 90-day "reciprocal tariff" suspension by US President Donald Trump nears.
Trump told media Friday that he would begin sending out letters Monday notifying 12 undisclosed countries of higher import duties, which would be effective on Aug. 1. These would be among 56 countries including South Korea and the European Union that could be subject to a sharp US tariff hike.
Before departing from Incheon Airport on Sunday morning, Wi Sung-lac, director of the presidential National Security Office, said that his trip from Sunday until Wednesday is aimed at "increasing his involvement" in negotiations as they reach a key phase.
"Now that we are entering a critical stage of the negotiation, I've been increasing my involvement in it and that's my motivation behind the US trip this time," he said.
Wi said that he was pursuing talks with his "counterpart," in an apparent reference to Marco Rubio, who currently doubles as the US secretary of state and national security adviser at the White House.
Rubio recently canceled his plan to stop by South Korea in early July, before his attendance at the ASEAN-related foreign ministers' meetings from July 10-11 in Malaysia, according to Seoul the previous week.
Among the agenda for talks on the table would be "tariff negotiations, security-related negotiations, among other current affairs," Wi said, adding that the timing for President Lee's first formal meeting with Trump at the White House could also be coordinated during his US trip.
The comments followed Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo's remarks just before he met his counterpart, US Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer.
"As the (negotiations) progress quickly, we can either team up with each other in the fields of trade, commerce and national security, or divide our responsibilities based on our given duties, depending on how the situation unfolds. Do we call it an 'all-court press?' That's the way we would handle this," Yeo told reporters in Washington on Saturday local time.
Yeo arrived in Washington on Saturday, in his second trip to the US only around a week after his previous visit there from June 22-27. Lee named Yeo as his trade minister on June 10. He had previously served in the same role from August 2021 to May 2022.
In the April announcement, South Korea was to be subject to a 25 percent tariff on most of its exported goods to the US. The figure translates into a combination of a 10 percent baseline tariff and a 15 percent "reciprocal" tariff.
As for speculation that South Korea might be open to discussing security matters to offset tariff burdens, such as renegotiation of the US defense cost-sharing pact, Yeo said he cannot confirm what would be discussed in the non-tariff talks.
Separate from the US "reciprocal" tariffs, the Trump administration has imposed tariffs on specific imports from any foreign countries, such as automobiles, auto parts, steel and aluminum.
In order to minimize the impact on South Korea's export-driven economy, relying on these products, Yeo said he was pursuing a mutually beneficial outcome from his meetings with US representatives.
"From our country's perspective, a reasonable level of exception or a significant reduction from specific tariffs on each item is important," Yeo said. "I have emphasized this many times before, and I plan to do so again today."
Since April, when the 90-day "reciprocal" tariff suspension was in effect, the US has signed trade deals with Vietnam and the United Kingdom. Given the trade volume between South Korea and the US, Yeo said the two countries' trade deals with the US cannot be considered on par with the deal between Seoul and Washington.
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