Just two weeks after millions of Americans joined No Kings protests against Donald Trump, the US president was presented with a golden crown by South Korea.
After arriving on Wednesday for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) meetings, Trump was given the gift by the South Korean president, Lee Jae Myung, as part of efforts to push through a deadlocked $350bn trade deal with the US.
The gesture appeared to work. As attention turned to Trump’s meeting on Thursday with the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, South Korean officials said Washington and Seoul had reached a broad trade deal covering investment and shipbuilding.
“South Korea and the United States have reached an agreement on the details of the tariff negotiations,” Lee’s aide, Kim Yong-beom, told reporters after a meeting between the two leaders.
“South Korea’s financial investment package for the United States, worth $350bn, consists of $200bn in cash investment and $150bn in shipbuilding cooperation,” Kim said.
Earlier, Trump told reporters a deal had been reached, but gave no details. “We did, we did. We did reach a deal,” he said at a dinner with Lee and other leaders. “We made our deal, pretty much finalised it.”
However, much of the focus of the trip will be on Trump’s talks with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, when they hold their first face to face meeting of his second term in the south-eastern Korean city of Gyeongju on Thursday.
After Trump landed on a flight from Tokyo, where he had signed a rare-earths deal with Japan’s new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, the US president addressed a summit of chief executives before meeting Lee.
The crown was a replica of one from the ancient Silla kingdom, whose capital was Gyeongju. Trump was also awarded the Grand Order of Mugunghwa, Korea’s highest decoration – named after the country’s national flower, a pink hibiscus known also as the Rose of Sharon in English.
The US president is known to love gold. He has decked the White House with gold, and business and foreign leaders have given him gifts of golden objects ranging from plaques, to a gold-plated fighter jet model, and even a samurai helmet.
Trump said he expected to reach a “great deal” on US trade with China, with a framework already drawn up for him and Xi to sign. He said he would cut a 20% tariff, imposed on China because of the flow of products used in production of the synthetic opioid fentanyl.
“I think we’re going to have a deal,” Trump said, adding that it would be a “great deal for both” countries. Speaking at a meeting of corporate leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, he said: “The world is watching, and I think we’ll have something that’s very exciting for everybody.”
A truce in the US-China trade war would be a satisfying end to Trump’s Asia tour, during which he has been lavished with praise and presents. But the prospects for a diplomatic breakthrough over North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme appeared to recede on Wednesday.
Speculation had grown that Trump could use his time in the region to arrange a fourth meeting with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, possibly in a repeat of their 2019 encounter at the demilitarised zone separating North and South Korea. But Trump suggested a meeting was unlikely. “I know Kim Jong-un very well … we really weren’t able to work out timing,” he said.
Beijing said the talks between Xi and Trump would take place in the South Korean port city of Busan, with the US leader telling reporters “a lot of problems are going to be solved” at the “great meeting”.
For Trump’s host, South Korea, the president’s visit was a chance to try to break its own trade deadlock. The two allies announced a deal in August under which Seoul would avoid the worst of the tariffs by agreeing to pump $350bn of new investments into the US.
However, Korean officials said a direct cash injection could destabilise their economy, and they would rather make loans and loan guarantees. Officials from both sides had said previously Trump and Lee were unlikely to finalise an agreement.
For now, South Korea is stuck with a 25% tariff on vehicles, putting manufacturers such as Hyundai and Kia at a disadvantage against Japanese and European competitors, which face a 15% levy.
Trump has also pressed allies including South Korea to pay more for defence, and the two are likely to discuss efforts to engage North Korea, which announced early on Wednesday that it had test-fired a nuclear-capable cruise missile the previous day.
In turn, South Korea has sought reforms to US immigration laws to allow for more workers to build factories after a raid on a Hyundai Motor battery plant in Georgia.
Lee took office in June and had a warm meeting with Trump at the White House in August, but tensions emerged over the US immigration raid in September. More than 300 South Koreans were detained, causing outrage and a sense of betrayal.
Lee has said companies could hesitate to invest in the US unless the visa system was improved. “If that’s not possible, then establishing a local factory in the United States will either come with severe disadvantages or become very difficult for our companies,” he said. “They will wonder whether they should even do it.”
The South Korean leg of Trump’s Asia tour stands comes after his visit to Japan, where the government has worked to fulfil its commitment of $550bn in investments as part of an earlier trade agreement. Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, announced up to $490bn in commitments during a dinner with business leaders in Tokyo.
Trump bonded with Takaichi, whose mentor, Shinzo Abe, was a “favourite” of the US president. On Tuesday, Trump took Takaichi with him when he spoke to US troops onboard an aircraft carrier and announced several important energy and technology projects in the US to be funded by Japan.
With Reuters and Associated Press
