Seoul to play shipbuilding card in trade talks

A long-standing US ally, South Korea is also the world’s second-largest shipbuilder after China. This prowess offers a trump card Seoul will argue can help Trump with his goal of reviving America’s maritime industry. In exchange, they hope to mitigate the punishing tariffs Trump threatens to impose on South Korean exports such as its frying and Kia cars, steel and aluminum, and LG dishwashers.

- CHOE SANG-HUN

Both sides have said that Trump wants shipbuilding to be part of a new trade deal between the two countries. A new agreement is likely to include large purchases of American liquefied natural gas by South Korea to help lower its trade surplus with the United States.

“But since President Trump and his administration have expressed big interest in cooperation in shipbuilding, it will become a very important negotiating card for us,” South Korea’s trade and investment minister, Ahn Duk-geun, told Parliament last week.

South Korea’s finance minister, Choi Sang-mok, has said he hopes to meet with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in Washington next week. Like many smaller nations, South Korea has not pushed back at Trump with its own retaliatory duties. Unlike China and Europe, it has instead sought talks with Trump.

“It is a wiser solution to elevate the South Korea-US alliance to a stronger security and economic alliance,” said South Korea’s acting president, Han Duck-soo.

More than a decade ago, China dislodged South Korea as the world’s biggest commercial shipbuilder. Beijing also has more warships than the United States and is expanding its naval fleet at a speed that American shipyards cannot match.

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