AmCham Korea Chairman on US-Korea Trade Deal

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00:00Give me your reaction first to this trade deal.

00:02All right. Sherry, it's always good to see you.

00:04I think that this was a fantastic APEC.

00:07First and foremost, the fact that we had President Trump

00:10was a real, real outstanding, you know, development.

00:14Just a week ago, we were concerned he may not show up.

00:17He gave an amazing speech over an hour with a lot of passion.

00:21So that was very positive.

00:23But look at this win-win trade deal that just got consummated.

00:26America needs Korea. Korea needs the U.S.

00:30And the deal itself seems very, very fair.

00:33In fact, I had a reception last night with both Howard Ludnick,

00:37the Secretary of Commerce, and also J.K. Kim, the MOTI minister.

00:43And as they walked into the reception, they were all smiles.

00:46I had a good chance to talk to them.

00:48And when I asked them how are things going, they both said things are great.

00:52How's the environment different from, say, back in July

00:55when we thought we had an agreement, but it wasn't necessarily finalized?

00:59Well, I think that back in those days there were a lot of things

01:01that should have been locked in.

01:04But now that other countries are doing something similar,

01:07this has become a lot more serious.

01:09And I think that we have to give both Secretary of Commerce Ludnick

01:13and MOTI minister Kim a lot of credit.

01:16In fact, at the speech yesterday, President Trump called the MOTI minister Kim

01:21a tough, tough negotiator.

01:23And that's a big tribute to what they did.

01:26In fact, you know, Secretary of Commerce last night mentioned

01:30that the Korean delegation came to the U.S. so many times.

01:35It shows you that with their tenacity and their ability to negotiate

01:39made this thing work.

01:41What do Amtran businesses think going forward should be your focus

01:44as you now have this new trade deal?

01:46Now that we have this new trade deal, I think it's time for American companies

01:51to really win in Korea.

01:53In fact, you and I talked about it before.

01:55I want to help make Korea a regional headquarters hub

01:58for multinational companies.

02:00Singapore has 5,000 of these multinational companies in Korea, right?

02:05We have 1,400 multinational companies in Hong Kong,

02:09900 in Shanghai, less than 100 in Korea today.

02:13So that just shows you there's an opportunity for the Korean government

02:17to fix some challenges they have.

02:19Labor inflexibility, CEO risk, digital tax,

02:24all those things that Korea can fix.

02:26Korea can really use its momentum to win in the long term.

02:30We're a few months into the President Lee Jae-myung administration.

02:33Are you seeing the changes that businesses want?

02:36I think that there are some things that he's doing a lot of things

02:41to help the business community, but we also have a few regulations

02:45that I think that we need President Lee Jae-myung to help address.

02:49And Amtran will be working very closely with the administration

02:52to hopefully resolve some of those things.

02:55That said, his administration has been very open, very transparent with us,

03:00and we have a lot of access into the Lee Jae-myung administration,

03:04which makes us very happy.

03:06We have seen the government making AI a core item agenda for this APEC.

03:11In fact, they want to take the lead in sort of building up a framework,

03:14an ecosystem, not only in South Korea,

03:16but sort of a governance framework for Asia as well.

03:21Do you see there are opportunities for Amcham companies

03:24to help in building this along with other partnerships?

03:29You know, I think it's an excellent point.

03:32In fact, one of the highlights of my trip here was at the tech forum that we had.

03:38We had the AWS president, and we had SK and SK Telecom presidents.

03:44AWS has committed another $5 billion into South Korea.

03:48That shows you how committed they are.

03:51We also had the head of the White House,

03:54AI team, led by Director Krazios.

03:57And we had a big session yesterday talking about tech prosperity.

04:01So there was an MOE that was signed, right?

04:04With the MSIT, you know, Secretary Ha.

04:08And I thought it was a fantastic MOE.

04:10It, again, allows the two countries to work together

04:13to really make AI a successful partnership

04:17amongst the two countries and companies in both nations.

04:20How quickly the mood can turn, right?

04:22Because only a month or so ago we had the immigration rates in Georgia

04:26and that really soured the relationship between Washington and Seoul.

04:30Are there any risks involved for companies doing business here in South Korea

04:34when the security alliance is strong,

04:40but then you never know with the uncertainties

04:42around the different economic angles

04:45and relationships between the two countries?

04:47You know, when the raid occurred in Georgia,

04:50obviously no one in Korea was happy about it.

04:53But a week and a half after the raid occurred,

04:56Deputy Secretary Landau visited Korea.

04:59We hosted him for an hour and a half.

05:01And I thought he was truly terrific.

05:03He talked about how to make this an opportunity

05:05to fix the visa situation.

05:07In fact, last night,

05:09Secretary Lednik also talked about the visa situation.

05:13He said, now we have this trade deal.

05:15We're going to now get visas for all the Koreans and make it work.

05:18So I look at it as an opportunity.

05:20We had a blip,

05:21but now that foundation has become much, much stronger.

05:26As we continue to see the relationship between Washington

05:29and its other allies like Japan and ASEAN countries improve

05:33and also be in conversations with Beijing in order to improve that relationship.

05:38What does it mean for companies working in South Korea and the relationship between the two?

05:43Is this relative to other alliances and partnerships?

05:47Absolutely.

05:49In fact, I think today's meeting between President Xi and President Trump would be very big.

05:54When the two countries, the two biggest countries are actually having good conversations

06:00and are at peace, it makes everybody do a lot better.

06:03And as a former business guy myself,

06:06when you have some clarity, business people can win with that kind of clarity.

06:11But when there's uncertainty, it makes it very difficult.

06:13And as President Trump mentioned yesterday,

06:15the stock market is an all-time high,

06:17and I expect it to even go higher, as President Trump said.

06:21So I give President Trump a lot of credit for what he has done,

06:24and I just hope that all the countries that are in discussion with the U.S.

06:29can follow through with that ambition

06:32and make this a great place for business.

06:35What will be your priorities for AMCHAM come next year as we head into 2026

06:41with a better picture for trade?

06:43You know, I just had a meeting with a deputy USTR representative,

06:48and one of the things we talked about is,

06:50hey, this deal sounds great, but now it's all about execution.

06:54We still have non-tariff barriers.

06:56We have issues with digital trade.

06:58We have some concerns here in South Korea.

07:01So now it's an opportunity for us to fix some of those things

07:05and make this a terrific place, and that's what we are focused on.

07:09Not with just words, but with action that we could really monitor.

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