SEOUL: South Korea and the United States will hold trade consultations this week in Washington at the suggestion of the US, Seoul’s trade ministry said on Sunday (Apr 20).
Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok and Trade Minister Ahn Duk-geun will meet with Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on the sidelines of the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, the ministry said in a statement.
South Korea hopes to lower the 25 per cent “reciprocal” tariff that President Donald Trump has announced for the country, which he has since paused along with high tariffs slapped on a string of countries.
Ahn will leave on Wednesday, the statement said. It did not specify the agenda or give other details.
In an interview with the Financial Times published on Saturday, acting South Korean President Han Duck-soo said that because of historical support from Washington, Seoul “will not fight back” against US tariffs but will seek to find “solutions which are more win-win for both”.
Han said that after the Korean War in the early 1950s, the US gave South Korea aid, technology transfer, investments and security assurances.
“Our industrial prowess and our financial development and our culture and growth and wealth are very heavily due to the help from the United States,” he said.
