But it\u2019s unclear whether the additional three weeks will be enough to resolve the longstanding disagreements between Washington and Seoul. One of the biggest points of contention is South Korea\u2019s auto industry, which was the third biggest exporter of automobiles to the U.S. last year.<\/p>\n
Although White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt<\/a> said Monday that Trump\u2019s phone was ringing \u201coff the hook from world leaders all the time who are begging him to come to a deal,\u201d the tone in Seoul has been reserved.<\/p>\n Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, left, walks across the tarmac on Sunday as President Trump boards Air Force One. On Monday, Trump dictated new tariff rates to 14 countries, including a 25% tax on South Korea.<\/p>\n (Jacquelyn Martin \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n Last week, ahead of the initial July 8 deadline, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung,<\/a> who took office last month, said \u201cit\u2019s difficult to say for certain that we can finish [the trade talks] by July 8.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBoth sides are doing their best and we need to come up with an outcome that can be mutually beneficial to both parties, but we still have not yet been able to clearly establish what each party wants,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Since then, senior South Korean trade officials have been dispatched to Washington with the hopes of bringing a deal within striking distance. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s time to speed up the negotiations and find a landing zone,\u201d Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo said after meeting with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Monday.<\/p>\n So far, the only two countries that have struck new trade deals with the Trump administration are the U.K. and Vietnam.<\/p>\n But the Lee administration has maintained a note of caution. At a high-level meeting held Tuesday to discuss the current state of the negotiations, Lee\u2019s presidential chief of staff for policy, Kim Yong-beom, reportedly emphasized the \u201cnational interest\u201d over speedy dealmaking, instructing officials to support tariff-affected industries and \u201cdiversify\u201d South Korea\u2019s export markets.<\/p>\n Under a decades-long free trade agreement, South Korean tariffs on most U.S. goods are already zero, meaning there are fewer concessions Seoul can offer, analysts say. And on the key points of contention such as automobiles<\/a>, there is little daylight to be found.<\/p>\n \u201cThis announcement will send a chilling message to others,\u201d Wendy Cutler, vice president of the Washington-based Asia Society Policy Institute and former deputy U.S. trade negotiator, said in a post on X.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s letter also suggested that the U.S. will \u201cnot be open to reprieves\u201d from sectoral tariffs, including those on automobiles, Cutler added.<\/p>\n South Korean trade officials have stressed that removing or significantly reducing the 25% tariffs on cars is a top priority.<\/p>\n White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt holds a trade letter sent by the White House to South Korea during a news conference on Monday.<\/p>\n (Al Drago \/ Bloomberg via Getty Images)<\/p>\n But South Korean cars from Hyundai and Kia factor significantly into the $66-billion trade deficit that Trump has decried as unfair. Last year, South Korea was the third biggest exporter of automobiles to the United States, to the tune of $34.7 billion. It bought $2.1 billion worth of cars from the U.S.<\/p>\n Until now, the country\u2019s flagship automakers Hyundai<\/a> and Kia have been able to sidestep any major tariff shocks, achieving instead record sales in the first half of the year by selling existing inventory in the U.S.<\/p>\n But many believe it is only a matter of time until they will have to raise vehicle sticker prices, as some competitors have done. Both companies\u2019 operating profits are now forecasted to hit double-digit declines compared with the previous year.<\/p>\n The U.S. has also reportedly demanded concessions that touch on sensitive issues of food or national security in South Korea \u2014 a far harder sell to the public than the expanded manufacturing cooperation that South Korea has sought to center in the trade talks.<\/p>\n Among these are opening up South Korea\u2019s rice market to U.S. imports and allowing Google to export high-precision geographic data to its servers outside of South Korea.<\/p>\n As an essential crop that represents a significant portion of farmers\u2019 incomes, rice is one of the few heavily protected goods in South Korea\u2019s trade relationships. Under its free trade agreement with the United States, Seoul imposes a 5% tariff on U.S. rice up to 132,304 tons, and 513% for anything after that.<\/p>\n U.S. Army soldiers attend a ceremony last month in Dongducheon, South Korea. A 2021 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that it cost $19.2 billion to maintain American troops in South Korea from 2016 through 2019.<\/p>\n (Kim Jae-Hwan \/ SOPA Images via Getty Images)<\/p>\n The South Korean government has long denied Google\u2019s requests to export high-precision geographic data \u2014 which is used for the company\u2019s map services \u2014 on the grounds that it could reveal sensitive military sites that are essential for defense against North Korea. Last year, Ukraine accused Google of exposing the locations of some of its military systems to Russia.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n