Speaking to an audience at a rally in Ohio, President Trump has indicated that he will hold up the finalization of a recently negotiated trade deal with South Korea. He says he wants to hold it up until after a deal is made with North Korea.
The exact reasoning behind this isn’t totally clear. Trump suggested that the trade deal with South Korea is a “strong card,” suggesting he intends to use it as leverage in the North Korea talks. Yet the trade deal has nothing to do with North Korea, so why they’d care is unclear.
Trump did appear optimistic about the North Korea talks, however, saying things are “moving along very nicely with North Korea.” He has recently said he believes there is a good chance of a peace and denuclearization deal.
Announced earlier this week, Trump said that the trade deal with South Korea marked “important progress” in the trade relations between the two nations. It lifts limits on US car sales to South Korea, while restricting the amount of steel South Korea can sell to the US.
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Anyone care to wager whether the Orange One decides to “re-negotiate” the agreement before it’s officially signed…whenever?
That is the prime reason North Korea should keep their nukes.
I suspect the trade deal is seen as favourable to both SK and
future-NK, so Trump would threaten to renegotiate it to be worse if not
getting what he wants.
The original KORUS harms the US economy. We’re bribing SK to be in our sphere of influence, tolerate a military base. Trump’s renegotiation of that deal appears largely symbolic. To my knowledge, we don’t sell our quota of cars to SK as is, so raising it doesn’t appear to help.
I personally want protectionist trade and the US out of SK, but I appreciate that Trump has brought attention to the problem. Too few appreciate Trump’s symbolic positioning, even if the actual changes are far less radical than hoped. Trump is a symbol, like Obama; the most powerful thing Trump does is to speak and tweet.
Historians will be forced to record Trump as successful if he manages a peace deal.