South Korea's trade minister is considering steps to boost US imports

The South Korean trade minister stated on Tuesday that his government is considering a package of measures designed to increase U.S. exports. He was heading to Washington for negotiations over U.S. Tariffs.

Minister Cheong Inkyo said that it was good news for him to hear that Donald Trump, the U.S. president, had said there was no reason why tariff talks with other nations than China could not be held.

Why not increase imports (to the U.S.?) if it is hard to reduce exports? Before flying to Washington, Cheong stated that we had been examining many different packages in order to solve the trade imbalance problem.

Cheong stated that the government was internally examining the possibility of increasing LNG imports to the United States.

The ministry announced that the South Korean Minister will meet with U.S. trade representative Jamieson Greer.

South Korean officials are among the top South Korean officials

Call for Talks

With Washington, to protect the export-dependent economy from the impact U.S. Tariffs.

Cheong said that he would dispute Washington's calculation that South Korea has a "high tariff", which he referred to as "problematic" in light of the existing free-trade agreement between the two countries.

Trump announced a reciprocal 25% tariff for South Korea and a 46% tariff for Vietnam where major South Korean companies like Samsung and LG produce products.

In the midst of an intensifying tariff war, these tariffs will be a "huge hit" for South Korean exporters who have production bases in Vietnam or elsewhere, said Finance Minister Choi Sangmok on Tuesday. (Reporting and editing by Ju-min Park; Joyce Lee, Cynthia Kim and Ed Davies).

(source: Reuters)