President Donald Trump is prepared to pull out of a major trade deal with South Korea, according to The New York Times.
Trump has not yet made a final decision, and is still weighing his options on how to proceed with the United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement, known as KORUS, two senior administration officials told TheNYT Saturday.
KORUS, negotiated under former President George W. Bush in 2007 and then re-negotiated by the Obama administration in 2010, was singled out by the president during the 2016 election as bad for the American worker.
Trump called it a “job-killing deal” during the campaign, as part of a larger indictment of America’s free trade deals with countries around the globe. Trump regularly railed against KORUS, the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an agreement-in-the-making that the president pulled out of almost immediately after taking office.
Under Obama, the re-negotiated KORUS lifted tariffs on 95 percent of goods between the U.S. and South Korea. Top GOP congressional leaders supported the agreement at the time, including Kentucky Republican Sen. Mitch Mcconnell.
Trump criticized the deal, which hit its five-year anniversary in March 2017, as part of his “America-First” messaging. America’s trade deficit with South Korea has more than doubled since 2011, according to The Economist, and American exports to South Korea have fallen far short of expectations.
The U.S. International Trade Commission predicted that American exports to South Korea would rise by approximately $10 billion, but they fell by $3 billion from 2011 to 2016. While global economic forces contributed to the sharp decline in exports, critics of the deal cite the drastic difference between the expectations for the deal and the results.
White House officials remain deeply divided over how to proceed. National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn oppose withdrawal, according to The Washington Post.
Re-negotiations with South Korea come as tensions with North Korea reach a fever pitch. The North said early Sunday that it had successfully tested a “missile-ready” nuclear bomb in what is considered a serious escalation in one of the most militarized regions of the world.
The ousting of former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon and senior advisor Sebastian Gorka concerned the president’s base that hoped he would follow through on his messaging on trade. Trump’s “America-First” theme, however, came before either man was a member of the president’s campaign team.
Trump’s remarks Saturday that the agreement was “very much on [his] mind” were met with angst from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The lobbying group asked its members to lobby the White House to stay in the deal.
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