South Korea’s top diplomat met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio as the country scrambles to avoid a threatened US tariff hike to 25 percent, while lawmakers in Seoul prepare to review a special bill required to implement funding pledged as part of last year’s trade agreement.
South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Hyun on Tuesday held talks with Rubio in Washington on the sidelines of a ministerial meeting on critical minerals, the ministry said.
“Minister Cho explained our domestic efforts to implement the tariff agreement between South Korea and the US, as well as our investment commitments to the US,” it said.
Photo: Yonhap news agency via EPA
The meeting took place after US President Donald Trump last week said he would raise the levy on goods imported from the Asian nation from 15 percent to 25 percent, citing what he said was the failure of the country’s legislature to codify the trade deal the two nations reached last year.
Before departing for Washington, Cho said he would seek US understanding on South Korea’s legislative process.
Cho’s visit follows South Korean Minister of Trade and Industry Kim Jung-kwan’s talks with US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick in the US last week, where Kim said he clarified that Seoul has no intention of delaying or failing to implement the trade deal with Washington.
In Seoul, South Korean Minister of Economy and Finance Koo Yun-cheol went to the National Assembly to seek cooperation for a swift review and passage of the so-called Special Law on Strategic Investment with the US, which is intended to underpin South Korea’s pledges of investing US$350 billion in the US.
Last year, the two nations spent months working on a trade agreement that brought down threatened US tariff rates in exchange for investment promises, but Trump’s latest move points to the risks the US’ trading partners still face.
It is unclear if or when the US would move to raise the tariff as threatened, but Seoul officials have said that the US appears to be having internal discussions over formalizing the hike.
After meeting with Koo, the chair of the National Assembly’s finance committee reviewing the bill said they would push to hold a hearing on the law before the Lunar New Year holiday.
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