US President Donald Trump said he would discuss the future of the US-South Korea free-trade agreement (FTA) with his advisers following a newspaper report that he is considering terminating the pact.
“I am,” Trump said in response to a question about whether he is discussing the issue with advisers.
“It’s very much on my mind,” the president said during a visit to Houston, Texas, on Saturday to view the damage from Tropical Storm Harvey.
Trump’s administration had begun talks with South Korea to revise a trade deal signed in 2012 by former US president Barack Obama’s administration, but they failed to agree on a way forward after joint meetings last month.
“Now is not the time for Washington to pull out of the KORUS FTA [Republic of Korea-US free-trade agreement] because a rift between the allies is exactly what Pyongyang wants and it’s being served to them on a silver platter,” Duyeon Kim, a visiting senior fellow at the Seoul-based Korean Peninsula Future Forum, said yesterday.
The Washington Post reported earlier on Saturday that Trump has ordered his advisers to prepare plans to withdraw from the pact, and that the formal process to leave could start as soon as this week.
No final decision has been made and Trump could remain in the agreement to see if changes are still possible, the newspaper reported, citing several people close to the process whom it did not identify.
No announcement is expected on the trade deal at this time, an official with the US Trade Representative office said on Saturday.
There is “no change” in South Korea’s policies on its free-trade agreement with the US, the Yonhap News Agency cited an unidentified official from the South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy as saying yesterday.
South Korea is “thoroughly preparing for all possibilities and will closely monitor” the US developments over the trade agreement, the ministry official said, according to Yonhap.
South Korean trade officials could not be reached by telephone for comment yesterday.
Trump’s push to revise the deal is part of his broader drive to tackle what he sees as unfair trading practices and cut the US trade deficit.
He pulled the US out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement during his first week in office and his administration is currently in talks to rewrite the 23-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement.
Trump said last month that Canada and Mexico are being “difficult” and he would probably need to scrap the pact.
Terminating the South Korea deal could complicate diplomatic relations at a time the nations are trying to cooperate in thwarting the threat posed by North Korea’s missile tests.
On Friday, Trump spoke with South Korean President Moon Jae-in about working together to address North Korea’s “destabilizing and escalatory behavior” and to strengthen their defense alliance, according to a readout of the call between the two leaders.
Trump’s pressure on South Korea on trade also comes as the administration is considering whether to take broader action against foreign-made steel. The US Department of Commerce has been investigating whether imported steel threatens US security under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act.
South Korea has been accused of dumping and subsidizing steel products.
South Korea is the US’s sixth-largest trading partner, while the US is South Korea’s second-largest trading partner after China. The US had a US$17.6 billion trade gap with South Korea last year, wider than US$7.7 billion in 2012.
Republican Senator Ben Sasse warned against pulling out of the pact, saying he stands with farmers and ranchers, according to a statement on Saturday.
Trump’s national security adviser Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, US Secretary of Defense James Mattis and National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn are among the advisers who are against withdrawing the US from the pact, the Washington Post reported.
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