South Korean Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick met in New York on Friday to hold follow-up talks on the two countries’ trade deal reached in July, multiple sources said.
Kim has been in the United States this week to iron out differences over the details of the trade agreement under which Korea will invest $350 billion in the US in return for Washington’s lowering of “reciprocal” tariffs on Korea from 25 percent to 15 percent.
According to the diplomatic sources, Kim and Lutnick held talks at an undisclosed location in New York.
“I don’t believe we are at a stage to announce an outcome,” one source said of the discussions.
The trade agreement was reached in July and affirmed in broad terms during last month’s Washington summit between President Lee Jae Myung and US President Donald Trump.
The details of the investment plan remain undecided, however, with Korea’s presidential chief of staff for policy, Kim Yong-bum, recently saying the two sides are at an “impasse.”
Lutnick said in a CNBC interview Thursday that Seoul should either accept the bilateral framework trade deal from July or pay 25 percent tariffs.
