Bessent "U.S.-Korea tariff negotiations will produce some result within ten days" [Lee Sang-eun's Washington Now]

The U.S. side said that within the next ten days, that is, before the APEC summit, there will be some result regarding the tariff negotiations. Today, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters this, and discussions on the ground are proceeding quite urgently.

The four leading figures from the Korean side who have been leading the tariff negotiations—Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Koo Yoon-chul, Industry Minister Kim Jeong-gwan, Policy Office Director Kim Yong-beom, and Trade Bureau Chief Yeo Han-gu—will visit Washington in succession to step up the finalization of the tariff negotiations.

It is highly likely that Director Kim Yong-beom has stepped in to coordinate the final details of the negotiations. This can be read as a signal that a deal is near. The heads of the four conglomerates Samsung, SK, Hyundai Motor, and LG are also scheduled to attend an investment promotion event at the Mar-a-Lago resort this week, which is expected to have a positive effect on the bilateral negotiations.

Deputy Prime Minister Koo told reporters before his departure that he would meet Secretary Bessent several times. Earlier, it was reported that the U.S. had presented Korea with investment alternatives taking into account Korea's foreign exchange issues. The Korean negotiation team is also expected to make counterproposals to the other side based on this.

The U.S. also agrees that a negotiation breakthrough is close. In an interview with CNBC today, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent answered the question of which trade negotiation the U.S. is most focused on right now, excluding China, by saying, "The negotiations with Korea are almost at the finishing stage."

When the host asked whether there were unresolved points regarding the investment part, Secretary Bessent explained, "There are issues with the details, but we are ironing out the specifics."

In particular, Korea was concerned about the impact on the foreign exchange market of being asked to make a one-time investment of 350 billion dollars, right? On this issue, the views of both sides appear to have narrowed considerably.

The earlier remark that a result would come within ten days came when Secretary Bessent met with some reporters at the Treasury today. A question was raised about Korea feeling difficulty in making a large-scale dollar investment and about its request for an unlimited currency swap. In response, Secretary Bessent said, "I am confident that the differences in perspective can be resolved," and added, "We are discussing it now and expect some result within the next ten days."

However, the Treasury is not the party that conducts currency swaps and that is the role of the Federal Reserve; he said that if he were the Fed chair, Korea would have done a currency swap like Singapore. In fact, Singapore temporarily conducted a small-scale currency swap during COVID, so its character is different from an unlimited currency swap. Even so, Secretary Bessent did confirm that he understands Korea's sensitivity about its foreign exchange reserves.

The issue is the content. Even if the 350 billion dollars were to be invested in won rather than dollars, making such a large one-time investment is practically almost impossible, so we prefer to proceed more slowly and invest in a proper, fund-based manner. How this part will be resolved in the final outcome is expected to be the key to concluding the negotiations.

Washington=Correspondent Lee Sang-eun selee@hankyung.com