"Thank You for Cooperation in Resolving Logistics Issues" Biden Invites Samsung to White House

The Only Foreign Company Attendee

U.S. President Joe Biden is hosting a discussion with business leaders at the White House on the 29th.
[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy New York=Correspondent Baek Jong-min] On the 29th (local time), U.S. President Joe Biden encouraged CEOs of major retailers and consumer goods manufacturers, including Samsung Electronics, who worked to resolve logistics issues during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping season.

At the event, President Biden expressed gratitude to the companies that helped alleviate the worst logistics bottlenecks, which could have led to chaos during the year-end shopping season and increased the burden on the Biden administration.

Samsung Electronics was the only foreign company invited to the event. According to the White House press corps, Choi Kyung-sik, head of Samsung Electronics North America, who had participated via video conference in last month's meeting on resolving distribution bottlenecks, attended the meeting in person this time. Last month, when President Biden held a private sector meeting to address the logistics crisis at West Coast ports, Samsung Electronics was the only foreign company invited.

At the event, President Biden stated, "Consumer spending has recovered to pre-pandemic levels," and explained, "Preliminary estimates show that Black Friday sales increased by nearly one-third compared to last year."

President Biden then requested to hear from the CEOs about what they are seeing during the holiday season, what preparations they have made to overcome supply chain issues, the challenges faced by small and medium-sized businesses, and ways to cooperate with the federal government to facilitate product movement.

The attending CEOs also expressed their appreciation for the Biden administration's efforts to resolve logistics problems. According to the White House, Choi said, "Samsung is doing its best to supply home appliances and electronics that American consumers want and need. We applaud President Biden for taking measures to resolve supply chain issues."

As the conversation between President Biden and the CEOs lasted longer than expected, the president's scheduled speech on the economic situation immediately following the event was postponed by two days. The White House explained that the reason for the cancellation was that President Biden wished to have more dialogue with business leaders.

According to the White House, the event was attended in person by CEOs from Samsung Electronics, electronics retailer Best Buy, supermarket chains Food Lion, Toddo's Supermarket, Kroger, e-commerce company Etsy, toy manufacturer Mattel, and Curate Retail Group. Retail giant Walmart and pharmacy chain CVS participated via video conference. Brian Deese, Chair of the National Economic Council (NEC), and Senior Advisor Cedric Richmond were also present at the White House.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.