SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korean Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol said on Tuesday he would try to derive a mutually beneficial trade agreement with the United States, in comments ahead of his departure to Washington to meet U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Seoul officials are scrambling in an all-out push to clinch a trade deal ahead of an August 1 deadline to avert punishing tariffs threatened by U.S. President Donald Trump against the country’s key industrial exports to the United States.
Koo’s plan to travel to Washington last week for talks with Bessent was postponed due to the U.S. treasury chief’s scheduling conflict.
“Treasury Secretary Bessent holds the important position of overseeing trade negotiations in the Trump administration,” Koo said in brief remarks to reporters.
“We will make the best effort to derive an agreement based on our national interest that would allow South Korea and the United States to co-exist,” he said.
Koo said he would be joining Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan and Minister for Trade Yeo Han-koo who have been holding talks with U.S. officials including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick for an “all-out response.”
(Reporting by Jihoon Lee, Jack KimEditing by Ed Davies)
