South Korea wants to extend trade talk deadline with the US

South Korea wants trade negotiations with the US to keep going even after next week’s deadline as Seoul continues to court Trump’s administration in hopes it is exempted from US tariffs.

According to a senior South Korean trade official, who asked to be kept anonymous for discussing internal matters, it is not feasible to expect negotiations to end before across-the-board tariffs are set to rise on July 9.

The official believes a lot of countries may have to work out the details of their negotiations long after the initial deadline. However, they admitted that it is also not certain if South Korea will be able to secure an extension of the grace period due to a “fluid situation” in the US.  

South Korea wants an extension

South Korea’s newly appointed Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo is working hard on the matter and was in Washington up until Sunday after he held his first meeting with US counterparts.

South Korea is considered a key US ally and major manufacturing hub for products like cars, semiconductors, and batteries, but its companies were not exempt from President Donald Trump’s tariff campaign.

Plus sectoral duties, South Korea has to pay a 10% tax on shipments to the US and that value will reportedly rise to 25% next week, barring a deal or an extension of the grace period.

In the past, US officials had insisted that sectoral tariffs would not be a subject of their talks. However, the anonymous official said some have hinted during more recent negotiations that they could be willing to consider discussing that topic depending on what South Korea has to offer.

Talk of the tariffs is happening at a critical time for South Korea as the new President Lee Jae-Myung seeks to revive an economy destabilized by tariff uncertainty.

Already, the Asian country, which has an export-reliant economy, has already suffered from US levies, with its central bank having slashed its 2025 GDP growth forecast to 0.8% from 1.5%.

The Trump administration is fluid on extending deadlines

Despite the efforts of South Korea’s trade minister, there is no certainty that the country will be awarded an extension.

Trump himself has already indicated he has no intention to extend the deadline on talks with any trading partners.

“I don’t think I’ll need to,” he said during an interview on Fox News from Friday before adding, “I could, no big deal.”

The statement came after Trump said on Friday that the administration could do “whatever we want” with the deadline, but he seems to be leaning towards making it shorter according to what he told the press.

“I’d like to make it shorter. I’d like to just send letters out to everybody, ‘Congratulations, you’re paying 25%,’” he said at a press briefing.

His stance seemingly contradicts what Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Fox Business, which is that countries are approaching the US with very good deals that might not have been concluded by the time Trump’s April 2 country-based tariffs kick back in.

He noted Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s previous comments that the White House plans to reach agreements with 10 major trading partners.

“If we can ink 10 or 12 of the important 18 — there are another important 20 relationships — then I think we could have trade wrapped up by Labor Day,” Bessent said.

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