Deputy Prime Minister Koo Yoonchul to Depart for US Tomorrow...Will Meet AFPI and Peterson Before Trade Talks

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Koo Yoonchul is answering reporters' questions about negotiations with the United States after the Foreign Economic Relations Ministers' Meeting held at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno, Seoul on the 22nd. 2025.7.22 Photo by Jo Yongjun

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Koo Yoonchul will depart for the United States on the morning of July 24 to negotiate tariffs with the United States. Just four days after taking office as the new government's chief economic policymaker, he is heading to the US for 2+2 trade negotiations.

Koo is scheduled to leave Incheon International Airport at 10:25 a.m. on Korean Air flight KE093 and arrive in Washington, D.C. at 11:15 a.m. local time.

For his first official engagement in the United States, Koo will meet with two major US think tanks in Washington, D.C.: the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) and the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

AFPI is a pro-Trump research organization established to support the re-election of US President Donald Trump and has produced many key officials for the Trump administration's second term. The Peterson Institute is well known as a leading progressive private policy research institution in the United States.

This meeting was arranged at the suggestion of the Korean side. It is seen as an effort to persuade key US policy influencers of the need to reduce reciprocal and item-specific tariffs ahead of the 2+2 trade negotiations.

The Ministry of Economy and Finance stated, "We plan to exchange views with key figures from the two think tanks on recent developments in the global economy and directions for Korea-US cooperation."

On July 25, the second day of the visit, 2+2 trade talks will be held to discuss reducing the 25% reciprocal tariffs imposed by the United States, as well as item-specific tariffs on products such as automobiles and steel.

Yeo Hankoo, Trade Minister at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, will join Koo as the Korean representative. On the US side, Treasury Secretary Scott Besant and US Trade Representative Jamison Greer will participate in the negotiations.

Kim Junggwan, Minister of Industry, who also departed for the United States today, is expected to meet with US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick to discuss reducing item-specific tariffs on automobiles and steel. Meetings are also scheduled with Doug Burgum, Chairman of the National Energy Committee and Secretary of the Interior?known as the Trump administration's "energy czar"?and Chris Wright, Secretary of Energy.

With just nine days left until the August 1 deadline set by the United States for reciprocal tariffs, the Korean government is making efforts to lower tariff rates.

Japan, which had been subject to the same 25% tariff rate as Korea, reached a trade agreement with the United States on July 22 to reduce its tariff rate by 10 percentage points, in exchange for a $550 billion investment and opening its automobile and agricultural markets. As a result, it is expected that Korea’s negotiation threshold will also be set at a 15% tariff rate (12.5% for automobiles).

Despite expectations that Japan would stall due to domestic political issues such as its defeat in the House of Councillors election, its success in concluding a trade deal with the US is expected to increase pressure on the Korean negotiation team from the US side.

During the July 25 negotiations, the US is expected to demand the import of beef from cattle over 30 months old, additional market opening for certain agricultural products, easing of regulations on US platform companies, investment in the Alaska liquefied natural gas (LNG) development project, and expansion of energy imports.

However, as the new government has just formed a new chief negotiation team, and because the US demands involve sensitive issues that require domestic negotiations with stakeholders and parliamentary ratification, it is expected that finalizing the negotiations will take some time.

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