Trump Says He Might Hold Up South Korea Trade Talks to Pressure the North

Rebecca Ballhaus

The Wall Street Journal

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@rebeccaballhaus
rebecca.ballhaus@wsj.com

March 29, 2018 3:43 p.m. ET

President Donald Trump threatened Thursday to delay trade negotiations with South Korea to use them as leverage for reaching a deal with North Korea.

Speaking in Richfield, Ohio, Mr. Trump said of renegotiating the U.S.’s trade deal with South Korea: “I may hold it up until after a deal is made with North Korea.…You know why? Because it’s a very strong card.”

The U.S. earlier this week reached a preliminary agreement to grant South Korea a permanent exemption to new steel tariffs in return for trade concessions, amending a 2012 trade pact in response to U.S. concerns about its $18 billion merchandise trade deficit with Seoul. Officials on both sides said some issues remain, including related to currency manipulation, that haven’t yet been resolved.

The two countries have been working toward summits between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, followed by a meeting with Mr. Kim and Mr. Trump. The U.S. goal in meeting with Mr. Kim is complete denuclearization by North Korea, subject to stringent verification, according to U.S. officials.

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Mr. Trump said Thursday of North Korea: “Certainly the rhetoric has calmed down a little bit.” He added, “We’ll see how it all turns out. Maybe it’ll be good and maybe it won’t. And if it’s no good, we’re walking, and if it’s good, we will embrace it. But it’s going to be very interesting.”

North and South Korea set a date Thursday for a meeting between leaders of the two countries, but failed to complete an agenda for the summit, including whether the North’s nuclear program would be part of the talks.

Administration officials had previously suggested the U.S. would sign the agreement with South Korea in the near future. On Sunday, Treasury Steven Steven Mnuchin told Fox News Sunday of the deal: “We expect to sign that agreement soon.”

Mr. Trump, who has in the past called the Korea-U. S. Free Trade Agreement a “horrible deal” and blamed it for expanding the U.S. trade deficit, on Thursday called the agreement a “ Hillary Clinton special,” and said his administration had renegotiated it to better serve American workers. The deal was negotiated and signed during the George W. Bush administration, and the most recent version took effect in March 2012, while Barack Obama was president.

Mr. Trump’s speech was billed as a pitch to push forward with an infrastructure-overhaul bill, but also touched on the midterm elections, the opioid epidemic, security on the Mexican border, immigration-system changes and gun policy.

The president said any progress on infrastructure policy likely wouldn’t come until after November, saying Democrats wouldn’t vote for his administration’s proposal. “We probably have to wait until after the election,” he said. “Which isn’t that long.”

—Bob Davis and Louise Radnofsky contributed to this article.

Write to Rebecca Ballhaus at Rebecca.Ballhaus@wsj.com

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