Korean Media: 3500 Billion Dollars Is Not Enough? The US Demands South Korea to Increase Investment Further!
On September 28, the Korean media "Today's Finance" published an article stating that the U.S. government is pressuring South Korea to increase its investment in the United States further on top of the previously verbally agreed 3500 billion dollars during the July 2022 Korea-US trade negotiations.
According to the "Wall Street Journal", U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick requested South Korea to further increase its investment in the United States in a private meeting, so that it would be closer to Japan's investment in the United States of 5500 billion dollars.
He also clearly stated that South Korea must accept terms similar to those in the U.S.-Japan investment agreement signed by Japan. The "Wall Street Journal" analyzed that "Secretary Lutnick does not want the outside world to think that the agreement provided by the U.S. to South Korea differs significantly from that of Japan," and "this reflects concerns that this view could weaken the U.S.-Japan agreement, as the agreement is not legally binding."
The Trump administration has expressed a desire for a larger proportion of South Korea's investment in the U.S. to be in cash rather than loans. Recently, Trump described South Korea's investment in the U.S. as a "prepayment."
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, in an interview with Reuters, said, "If we extract 3500 billion dollars without currency swaps according to the U.S. requirements and invest all of it in cash in the U.S., South Korea will face the same situation as the foreign exchange crisis in 1997," and stated that he was unwilling to invest in cash.
In July this year, South Korea and the United States agreed to reduce reciprocal tariffs and auto tariffs from 25% to 15%, in exchange for South Korea investing 3500 billion dollars in the United States. Since this agreement is only a verbal agreement, both sides are still coordinating specific details. However, due to significant differences between the two sides on the form of investment, the negotiations have faced difficulties.
A White House official said that the U.S. is making minor adjustments to the trade agreement with South Korea, but any demands proposed by the Trump administration have not deviated significantly from the already reached agreement. The "Wall Street Journal" pointed out that the final outcome of the U.S. trade agreement with South Korea is a key indicator for assessing the broader tariff negotiations currently being conducted by the U.S. with dozens of countries.
Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1844508863086810/
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