Trump Says KORUS Signing Might Wait Until North Korean Talks Are Held
Even though officials have trumpeted the rewrite of the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS) as historic and a win, President Donald Trump said in Ohio that he may hold back on signing it until talks with North Korea are held. The March 29 speech was supposed to be about infrastructure, but Trump spent at least half the time talking about other subjects, including trade.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
"Just this week we secured a wonderful deal with South Korea,” Trump said. “We were in a deal that was a horror show. It was going to produce 200,000 jobs, and it did, for them," he said. "So we've redone it and that's going to re-level the playing field on steel and cars and trucks coming into this country," he said to applause. The renegotiated KORUS extends a 25 percent U.S. tariff on imported trucks for 20 years, and reduces Korean exports of steel to America by 30 percent through a quota. It does not change the treatment of Korean car imports, but lowers non-tariff barriers to U.S. car exports to Korea.
“I may hold it up until after a deal is made with North Korea. Does everybody understand that?” Trump said. “You know why? Because it's a very strong card, and I want to make sure everyone is treated fairly, and we are moving along very nicely with North Korea. We'll see what happens," he said. “The rhetoric has calmed down a little bit, wouldn't you say? Maybe it will be good and maybe it won't -- if it is no good, we are walking, and if it is good, we will embrace it. South Korea has been wonderful, but we’ll hold that deal up for a little while and see how it all plays out." Trump's statements on the trade deal apparently came as a surprise to South Korea. “We’re trying to grasp the genuine intent behind President Trump’s remarks,” South Korean Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Paik Ungyu said March 30 in Seoul, according to the Wall Street Journal. “We regard the renegotiation of the free-trade agreement as having already been completed smoothly.”
Trump said his administration is "cracking down on unfair trade that steals our jobs and plunders our wealth. They've stolen our wealth, they've stolen our jobs, they've stolen our plants and factories. No more," he said. "We are not letting other countries take advantage of us. Even our friends took advantage -- our friends are friends, they're wonderful people, but we said, ‘you can’t do that anymore.’ Those days are over. Frankly, our friends did more damage than our enemies because we did not deal with our enemies. We dealt with our friends and we dealt incompetently. We're now finally putting America first,” he said, as the crowd cheered.