New York, Sep 24 (EFE).- The US and South Korea on Monday signed a revised bilateral trade pact, the first such agreement finalized by the administration of Donald Trump since he took office last year.
Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in signed the new pact – modifying a bilateral trade agreement in place since 2012 – in New York, six months after announcing that their governments had arrived at a preliminary agreement to revise their nations’ trade regime.
Trump said, in signing the pact, that this deal was very important and Monday was a “great day” for both the US and South Korea.
The US president had said last year that he was planning to withdraw from Washington’s trade agreement with South Korea, but he said Monday that his government is presently negotiating “many” other such deals that will be “fair and reciprocal” for the US, although he did not mention the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada.
To enter into force, the newly revised pact must be ratified by the South Korean legislature, where some lawmakers have warned that they will not approve it if Trump carries out his threat to impose additional tariffs on automobile imports from certain countries, including South Korea.
The modifications in the new pact are limited but the most important of them increases from 25,000 to 50,000 the number of each US auto manufacturer’s vehicles that Washington can export each year to South Korea.
That measure is not likely to have any significant impact for some time, as no US automaker sold more than 11,000 vehicles in South Korea last year.