South Korea hails as the first country to establish a trade consultative body with the US, highlighting collaboration in shipbuilding, energy, and tariff policies.
As other trade partners scramble to address impending trade challenges, Seoul has become the first government to establish such a consultative body with Washington, according to Minister of Trade, Industry, and Energy Ahn Duk-geun, who gave a briefing on the results of trade talks with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick that were held in Washington last week.
“We are going to use this channel to explain how Korea has invested in the US in the past and how we are going to do it in the future as well.”
The newly formed consultative body is expected to work with the US Department of Commerce, US Trade Representative (USTR), and National Energy Council to address five issues: shipbuilding, energy, the Alaska LNG project, tariffs, and nontariff barriers.
Leading Korea will be the Industry Ministry, which will collaborate with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of National Defense, and the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
The Industry Minister added that the latest talks clarified that Korea is no longer China's other trade route, unlike under the first Donald Trump administration.
Ahn stated that such plans will be useful negotiation tools when discussing tariffs with the US, as Korea is contemplating diversifying its energy sources by increasing its imports of LNG from the US.
“Since the US is seeing the trade deficit as a key indicator, importing energy from the US will serve as a very useful card,” he said. “We are mulling several options, such as expanding the long-term contract volume signed for this year or shifting some imports from China to the US”.
According to Ahn, Korean companies must meet specific conditions outlined in the contract in order to be eligible for the promised subsidies for Korean chipmakers that have made significant investments to construct chip factories in the US.
He also stated that the government will keep asking the US government to maintain policy coherence in order to ensure that the agreed-upon subsidies are maintained.