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Seoul official stresses effort to explore 'practical' measures to manage Korea's trade surplus with U.S.

Published: 12 Mar. 2025, 10:36

Choi Joong-kyung, South Korea's ambassador on international investment cooperation speaks at an event on Sept. 23, 2024. [KOREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY]

A Seoul official underscored South Korea's commitment Tuesday to exploring "practical" measures to manage its trade surplus with the United States, as President Donald Trump is leveraging tariffs as a policy tool to pare down U.S. trade deficits and bolster domestic manufacturing.

Speaking at a forum, Choi Joong-kyung, ambassador for international investment cooperation, stressed that Korea's trade surplus did not come at the expense of the United States, noting that it originates mainly from the difference between the two countries' industrial structures.

Choi also underscored the importance of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which was signed into law by Trump's predecessor, Joe Biden, in 2022, highlighting it helps the "reshoring" — a practice of bringing manufacturing factories back to the United States from abroad.

"Korea is open to more talk on this issue, and will consult with the United States about practical measures to manage its trade surplus," Choi said during the forum hosted by the Heritage Foundation.

"From my perspective, a promising area for further future talk is energy trade. By importing more energy from the U.S., Korea can diversify energy sources while enhancing energy security," he added.

His remarks came amid growing concerns that the Trump administration could impose higher or new tariffs on Asia's fourth largest economy due in large part to its trade surplus with the United States, which was tallied at $55.7 billion last year.

The Trump administration plans to impose country-by-country "reciprocal" tariffs to be customized based on various factors, including trading partners' duties and nontariff barriers as well as exchange rate policies. On Wednesday, it plans to start imposing a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum imports.

Touching on the IRA, Choi cited Korean businesses' view that the act is "absolutely indispensable for our factories to operate and remain sustainable."

"In my opinion, the IRA functions as a driving force to induce greenfield investment on American soil, thus helping the reshoring of key manufacturing industries," he said.

The forum took place to explore the future of South Korea-U.S. industrial cooperation. As for promising areas of bilateral cooperation, the ambassador mentioned the defense and shipbuilding industries, AI, semiconductor and nuclear power plant among others.

Also present at the event was Jack Spencer, senior research fellow for energy and environmental policy at the Heritage Foundation.

Asked to comment on a report that the U.S. Department of Energy is weighing listing South Korea as a "sensitive country," a classification that could undermine bilateral nuclear cooperation, Spencer said that commercial and military nuclear power are different and separate.

Speculation has continued that the United States could consider putting Seoul on the list of sensitive countries because of growing public calls in South Korea to develop its own nuclear arsenal to counter North Korea's evolving nuclear threats.

"If they were interested in building a nuclear weapon, would cooperation with the United States on commercial nuclear power make that more or less likely to happen?," he asked. "I would argue it would make it less likely to happen because we too often conflate commercial nuclear with military nuclear. They are very different things."

He added, "Ongoing cooperation on commercial nuclear is not going to enhance South Korea's ability to build a nuclear weapon."

Yonhap