US president will meet his South Korean counterpart, Lee Jae Myung, but expectations of a breakthrough on tariffs are low
Donald Trump heads to South Korea on Wednesday to meet President Lee Jae Myung, with deadlocked talks over a $350bn trade deal between the two countries threatening to cast a shadow over the event.
After arriving on a flight from Tokyo, where he signed a rare earths deal with Japan’s new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, the US president is due to address a summit of CEOs and meet Lee in the town of Gyeongju, a historical city playing host to the annual Apec summit.
At the top of the agenda will be the unresolved trade agreement between the US and South Korea. The two allies announced a deal in August under which Seoul would avoid the worst of the tariffs by agreeing to pump $350bn of new investments into the US.
However, Korean officials say a direct cash injection could destabilise their economy, and they would rather do loans and loan guarantees instead. Officials from both sides have said Trump and Lee are unlikely to finalise an agreement.
