WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s nominee to be the US ambassador to South Korea vowed on Wednesday to press South Korea to learn where the $350 billion Seoul has pledged to invest in the United States will come from.
Former California congresswoman Michelle Steel also told her Senate confirmation hearing that US firms in South Korea deserved the same market access Korean companies enjoy in the United States.
Last year Washington and Seoul agreed the broad outlines of an agreement on trade and investment under which South Korea committed to invest $350 billion in the United States in return for more favorable tariff terms. But details have been sparse and implementation slow, prompting Trump to threaten in January to raise tariffs on South Korean goods to 25 percent from the 15 percent noted in the deal.
Tensions have since eased, and a South Korean law implementing the investment pledge goes into force next month. Steel, however, said Washington was still waiting for key details.
“I’m going to sit down with the Korean government and whoever that is (in) control of these trade issues, because that joint fact sheet is not really clear about that $350 billion,” Steel said in response to a question from Republican Senator Pete Ricketts of Nebraska.
