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South Korea’s Moon calls on chaebol bosses to counter Trump’s trade threat
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Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has pulled the US out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and started renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement. The challenge for South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who heads to Washington this week, is to keep Trump away from another deal the billionaire dislikes: their 2012 free-trade pact.
The summit between Trump and Moon, scheduled for June 29 and 30, comes at a time of rising trade tensions between the two countries. Trump has derided the Korea-US free-trade agreement, known as Korus, as a “horrible deal” and “a one-way street”. His administration has targeted Korean companies with new penalties and investigations.
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To help fend off criticism, Moon is taking reinforcements from Korea’s most powerful chaebol, the conglomerates that dominate its economy. Executives from Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor are among the 52-person business delegation travelling to the US to help convince a sceptical Trump that free trade with South Korea is to the benefit of both countries. They’re expected to take the opportunity to announce plans for new investments or deals that help create American jobs.
Korean companies may be borrowing a page from the playbook of other Asian firms in countries that Trump has criticised for their trade imbalances, according to Justin Jimenez, a Bloomberg Intelligence economist in Hong Kong. Masayoshi Son of Japan’s SoftBank Group and Jack Ma, China’s richest man, have both met with Trump and pledged to create jobs in the US. Ma’s Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
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