Trump stated in a post on the ‘Truth Social’ platform: “I am pleased to announce that the United States of America has agreed to a comprehensive and complete trade agreement with the Republic of Korea (South Korea).” He added: “The agreement stipulates that South Korea will provide the United States with 350 billion US dollars in exchange for investments owned and managed by the United States, which I personally selected as President. Additionally, South Korea will purchase 100 billion US dollars worth of liquefied natural gas or other energy products. South Korea has also agreed to invest a significant amount for investment purposes.” The American President continued: “This amount will be announced in the next two weeks when South Korean President Lee Jae-myung visits the White House for a bilateral meeting.” On April 9th, Trump announced tariffs to be imposed on more than 75 countries for 90 days to provide an opportunity to negotiate with these countries about trade imbalances with the United States, and China was not among these countries. Trump confirmed earlier that several countries are demanding a reduction in tariffs, but on May 31st, he announced that the United States would double the tariffs on steel imports from 25 percent to 50 percent. Meanwhile, US Treasury Secretary Scott Besent confirmed in statements to the American network ‘CNN’ that “the United States will send letters to its trading partners warning them that if a trade agreement is not reached before August 1st, the temporarily suspended tariffs will be applied.”
