Fact Sheet: The United States and Korea Agree to the Korea Strategic Trade and Investment Deal

ACHIEVING RECIPROCAL TRADE: President Donald J. Trump and President Lee Jae-Myung announced a Joint Fact Sheet reaffirming the historic Korea Strategic Trade and Investment Deal. The deal reflects a common goal to increase mutually beneficial trade and investment and will address longstanding barriers that American exporters have faced in the Korean market while bolstering U.S. national and economic security.

Key terms of the Korea Strategic Trade and Investment Deal include:

• Korea will eliminate the 50,000-unit cap on U.S.-originating Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS)-compliant vehicles that can enter Korea without further modifications. Korea will also reduce regulatory burdens for U.S. automotive exports by not requiring additional documentation in its emissions certification process other than those submitted to U.S certification authorities.
• Korea will work together with the United States to address non-tariff barriers affecting trade in food and agricultural products, including by: ensuring that existing commitments under bilateral agreements and protocols are met; streamlining the regulatory approval process for agricultural biotechnology products and resolving the backlog of U.S. applications; establishing a U.S. Desk dedicated to requests for U.S. horticultural products; and preserving market access for U.S. meats and cheeses that use certain terms.
• The United States and Korea commit to ensure that U.S. companies are not discriminated against and do not face unnecessary barriers in terms of laws and policies concerning digital services, including network usage fees and online platform regulations, and to facilitate cross-border transfer of data, including for location, reinsurance, and personal data. Further, the United States and Korea will support the permanent moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions at the World Trade Organization.
• Korea commits to provide additional procedural fairness provisions in competition proceedings, including the recognition of attorney-client privilege.
• The United States and Korea will work together to protect intellectual property rights. Korea will continue to take the necessary steps to accede to the Patent Law Treaty.
• The United States and Korea commit to work together to ensure strong protection of internationally-recognized labor rights. The United States and Korea will work together to combat all forms of forced labor globally, including by combatting the importation of goods made with forced labor.
• The United States and Korea reaffirm the importance of ensuring differences in environmental protection do not distort trade and investment. To this end, Korea will effectively enforce its environmental laws to facilitate reciprocal trade, including by fully implementing the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies.

PROTECTING ECONOMIC PROSPERITY: The Leaders acknowledged the need to strengthen economic and national security alignment in order to preserve our competitiveness and maintain secure supply chains.

• This includes cooperation to combat duty evasion and taking complementary actions to address unfair and non-market policies and practices, enhancing inbound investment and outbound investment regulations, and both countries will ensure that international procurement obligations provide a benefit to those countries that have taken on the same commitments.

THE PROSPEROUS PATH FORWARD: In the coming weeks, the United States and Korea will undertake applicable domestic procedures and convene the Joint Committee of the United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement to memorialize the commitments.

• Given Korea's commitment to take steps to advance a stronger and more reciprocal trade relationship, the United States will remove the reciprocal tariffs on Korea's exports to the United States for certain qualifying exports contained on the list of Potential Tariff Adjustments for Aligned Partners (PTAAP).

LIBERATING AMERICA FROM UNFAIR TRADE PRACTICES: Since Day One, President Trump challenged the assumption that American workers and businesses must tolerate unfair trade practices that have disadvantaged them for decades and contributed to our historic trade deficit.

• On April 2, President Trump declared a national emergency in response to the unprecedented threat caused to the United States by the large and persistent trade deficit caused by a lack of reciprocity in our bilateral trade relationships, disparate tariff rates and non-tariff barriers, and U.S. trading partners' economic policies that suppress domestic wages and consumption.
• President Trump continues to advance the interests of the American people and our agricultural sector by removing tariff and non-tariff barriers and expanding market access for American exporters.
• Today's announcement provides a tangible path forward with Korea that underscores the President's dedication to bringing balanced, reciprocal trade with an important trading partner.