President Donald Trump said Thursday in South Korea that Seoul has agreed to invest $350 billion in the United States, marking a partial breakthrough in trade negotiations after months of discussions.
“South Korea has agreed to pay the USA 350 Billion Dollars for a lowering of the Tariff’s charged against them by the United States,” Trump wrote on Truth Social after meeting South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Gyeongju, South Korea.
“Additionally, they have agreed to buy our Oil and Gas in vast quantities, and investments into our Country by wealthy South Korean Companies and Businessmen will exceed 600 Billion Dollars. Our Military Alliance is stronger than ever before and, based on that, I have given them approval to build a Nuclear Powered Submarine, rather than the old fashioned, and far less nimble, diesel powered Submarines that they have now,” Trump said.
Lee’s chief of staff, Kim Yong-beom, and other senior officials said at a briefing Wednesday that Trump and Lee had resolved some of the key issues around the $350 billion investment pledge Seoul made as part of a preliminary July agreement to avoid higher U.S. tariffs. According to a report in the Seoul-based Yonhap News Agency, South Korea has committed to spending $200 billion in cash, paid in installments not exceeding $20 billion per year. The remaining $150 billion will be directed toward the U.S. shipbuilding industry, according to Lee’s aides, a top manufacturing priority for the Trump administration.
