President Trump signed an amended trade deal with South Korea Monday, getting the nation to lower customs barriers and double to 50,000 the amount of U.S.-made cars that can enter its markets in exchange for granting a special exception to U.S. steel tariffs. The president touted the agreement as a more equitable arrangement for the U.S.
“It was a long time in coming, and it’s a basic redoing of the agreement that was done before, which was a very unfair agreement for the United States,” Trump said a speech at the United Nations headquarters in New York alongside South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
The deal requires Korea to ease various onerous regulatory requirements involving safety and emissions that kept U.S. cars out of its market. Under Monday’s agreement, Korea will accept U.S. regulatory requirements. The deal would also extend until 2041 the planned phase out of a 25 percent U.S. tariff on trucks, up from the current phase out date of 2021.
The White House cited an overall trade deficit of $9.8 billion in 2017 as proof that the Asian country had gotten the better of the previous arrangement, noting that was up from $6.3 billion when the U.S.-Korea trade agreement was signed in 2012.
In exchange, South Korea will get an exception to the U.S. 25 percent tariffs on steel imports, instead of being limited to a quota equal to 70 percent of that country’s average annual import volume from last two years.
“I’m very pleased that we have revised this agreement to achieve a freer, a fairer, and more mutually beneficial agreement,” Moon said at the event. “And through this agreement, I hope that the bilateral economic ties will be promoted even further.”
