Reuters | 29 October 2025

Trump announces trade breakthrough with South Korea

by Trevor Hunnicutt and Jihoon Lee

U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung finalized details of their fraught trade deal at a summit in South Korea on Wednesday.

“We made our deal, pretty much finalized it," Trump said at a dinner with Lee and other regional leaders on the sidelines of an Asia Pacific forum.

The allies unveiled a deal in late July under which Seoul would avoid the worst of U.S. tariffs on its imports by agreeing to pump $350 billion of new investments into the United States in return for lower tariff rates. But talks over the structure of those investments had been deadlocked.

Trump and Lee agreed that Seoul can split its promised $350 billion investment fund into $200 billion in cash to be paid in installments of $20 billion, Lee’s aides said.

The other $150 billion is to be spent on investments in shipbuilding, which South Korea has promised to help Trump restore.

Lee’s aide, Kim Yong-beom, said a factsheet on South Korea’s agreements with the U.S. on security and trade would be ready within several days, while a memorandum of understanding that contains details of the trade agreement was close to complete.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the details of a Korea trade deal, which needs to be ratified by South Korea’s parliament.

Arriving from Tokyo hours after North Korea test-fired a nuclear-capable cruise missile, Trump was given a lavish welcome by Lee in Gyeongju, a historic city hosting this year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

The U.S. president also sounded an optimistic note about a looming summit with China’s Xi Jinping.