South Korea’s Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol and the executive chairman of tech megacompany Samsung, Lee Jae-yong, both boarded planes headed towards America on Tuesday, seeking to find a resolution to the ongoing trade tensions between Washington and Seoul.
As with nearly every other American trade partner, President Donald Trump announced in April a complete overhaul of America’s economic agreements with South Korea, seeking a deal, he argued, that would be fairer for American exporters and create a more prosperous economic atmosphere at home. Trump announced a deadline to impose tariffs of varying quantities on America’s trade partners of August 1, which some nations have met, others are striving to, and some have managed to overcome by clinching an extension of talks.
“We will do our utmost to draw up a proposal that centers on national interest and enables a mutually beneficial agreement between South Korea and the U.S.,” Koo told reporters before his flight to Washington, according to the South Korean Yonhap News Agency. Koo said he expected to meet with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and would address Koreans’ concerns that the administration of President Lee Jae-myung would not competently negotiate a deal by presenting a massive new shipbuilding initiative, dubbed “Make American Shipbuilding Great Again.”
Lee Jae-yong, the Samsung chief, separately began the long journey to America on Tuesday, according to the Korea JoongAng Daily, to “lend support to ongoing Korea-U.S. tariff negotiations.” The newspaper stated that Samsung is expected to propose major investments in the American economy to bolster efforts for South Korea to avoid the onerous tariffs Trump has proposed on South Korean goods. Samsung announced on Monday, prior to Lee’s departure, a major deal to sell advanced chips to Tesla, the electric vehicle company owned by Chinese regime ally Elon Musk.
The South Korean government did not explicitly tie the Samsung leader’s travels to its efforts on an American trade deal.
Members of civic groups protest against U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs policy on July 30, 2025 in Seoul, South Korea. South Korea’s Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol pledged to make every effort to reach what he called a “mutually beneficial” trade agreement with the United States ahead of this week’s negotiation deadline. (Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)
“Observers say the Samsung chief may offer behind-the-scenes support,” JoongAng reported. “The company has committed to investing more than $37 billion to build a semiconductor hub in the United States, and the Korean delegation may use the investment as leverage in the talks.”
South Korea is facing a 25-percent tariff on all the goods that it exports to America if it does not reach an alternative agreement with the Trump administration by Friday. The administration of recently inaugurated leftist President Lee Jae-myung has attempted to court the White House by tying favorable trade provisions to an increase in defense spending and is expected to present this week a plan to help America establish a more robust shipbuilding sector. Multiple reports indicate that of primary importance to Trump, however, is limiting tariffs and non-tariff barriers to entry for American farmers and ranchers, particularly for rice and beef products. Lee is facing significant political pressure at home not to make any concessions on agriculture, complicating the talks. JoongAng described the beef and rice issue as among the “most contentious” in the trade talks, alongside the “scale of Korean investment in the United States,” a topic on which Samsung could offer significant support. The government of Lee Jae-myung, in office for a little less than two months, had reportedly refused to discuss opening its agriculture market to more American products, but the issue is “now on the table” after a failure to come to an agreement.
Trade talks to reach an agreement between the South Korean and American governments were scheduled for last Friday, but abruptly fell through when U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent canceled due to an alleged scheduling conflict. South Korean news reports claimed that the Trump administration canceled the talks via email.
Meanwhile, in addition to the European Union, five nations have cut deals with Trump and avoided the higher tariffs proposed: the United Kingdom, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Japan. Trump had addressed trade with Japan and South Korea in the same letter, threatening the same 25-percent tariff on Japan before arriving at an agreement. That Tokyo managed to come to an agreement with the White House before Seoul appeared to especially alarm the Lee administration.
Much of the Trump team traveled this weekend to Scotland for an event involving one of the president’s golf properties, which also served as an opportunity to announce that the 27 countries of the European Union had collectively come to a trade agreement with America. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick revealed in a recent interview that the Lee administration sent negotiators to Scotland to meet with the team.
“The South Koreans flew to Scotland to meet with me and [US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer] after dinner,” Lutnick reportedly told Fox News. “I mean, think about how much they really, really want to get a deal done.”
Travel times and the Trump administration’s schedules means that, in practice, South Korea’s negotiators have about one day to secure a deal, the South Korean newspaper Dong-A Ilbo observed on Monday.
“No final agreement appears to have been reached on major issues,” an unnamed diplomatic source told the newspaper. “The negotiations will likely go down to the wire.”
Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter.
Read the full article here