Inside Trade

September 21, 2025

U.S.-Korea FTA News

White House official: KORUS undergoing ‘normal review process,’ but no shift in policy expected soon

President Trump is continuing to review the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement, but no change in policy is expected to be announced in the near future, the White House director of legislative affairs said this week. Inside U.S. Trade first reported on Sept. 6 that the White House, after internally debating whether to begin to withdraw from the deal, told lawmakers the idea was off the table for the time being . Many in Congress had expressed alarm at the...

South Korean ambassador to U.S. hopes for second KORUS special session

South Korea's ambassador to the U.S. said on Monday that he hopes the two countries will soon set a date for another special session of the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement’s joint committee to continue discussions about modifying the five-year-old deal. Speaking at a Sept. 11 event hosted by the Washington International Trade Association, Ahn Ho-Young said the U.S. and Korea “have continued to carry on our discussions” following the first-ever special session, held on Aug. 22. in Seoul. During last...

Ross: NAFTA negotiators tackling easiest issues first to gain momentum

The U.S., Canada and Mexico are working through the least controversial issues first in NAFTA talks in an attempt to gain steam for the rest of the negotiations, which are bound to prove trickier, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said today. “In any big complicated negotiation, and this is a complicated one, you’ve got something like 2,500 pages to deal with and of those 2,500 pages there are only handful that are really key, but you’ve got to wind through all...

Rep. Murphy attempts to block funding for a U.S. withdrawal from KORUS

Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-FL) this week attempted to attach an amendment to an omnibus spending bill that would have prevented the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative from using any funds to terminate the U.S-Korea Free Trade Agreement. “The purpose of this amendment is to send a strong message to the President that any action on the part of the executive branch to withdraw from KORUS-FTA would be a serious strategic error, because it would undermine our security, our economy,...

Sources: White House has assured lawmakers that KORUS withdrawal is off the table

The White House has assured key lawmakers that its threat to begin withdrawing from the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement has -- for now -- been taken off the table, sources told Inside U.S. Trade . According to these sources, the plan to terminate the agreement had been discussed with several Capitol Hill offices including that of House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), who was one of the lawmakers informed that the administration had decided not to withdraw. But the business community...

Zoellick tears into Trump's trade policies, urges Congress to take action

Robert Zoellick, U.S. Trade Representative under President George W. Bush, wrote a scathing appraisal of President Trump's trade policy in the Wall Street Journal Tuesday, urging Congress to block what he called Trump's “crack-up.” First up in Zoellick's attack: Trump's threats to abandon KORUS. “The immediate result would be to increase barriers to American exporters, especially farmers, ranchers, manufacturers and service industries,” he wrote in his op-ed . “Without the FTA, Korea’s average tariff could be boosted to almost 14%,...

U.S. Chamber executive says president must consult private sector before withdrawing from KORUS

Consulting with the private sector before making major trade policy decisions – like withdrawing from KORUS – “isn't just a good idea, it's the law,” says U.S. Chamber of Commerce senior vice president John Murphy. Murphy, in a string of messages pushed out on Twitter today , said agricultural producers, for one, want better access to the Korean market, but “NO ONE wants withdrawal” from the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement, or KORUS. Inside U.S. Trade in recent days has...

Rep. Murphy: Congress could 'intercept' KORUS withdrawal by restricting funds

Congress could try to “intercept” any move to pull the U.S. from its free trade agreement with South Korea by passing an appropriations bill that bans the use of any funding for withdrawal, Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-FL) said today. Murphy, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said at a Sept. 5 event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies that “withdrawal from KORUS would be a huge mistake.” Murphy joined a bipartisan chorus of opponents of...

Lawmakers condemn prospect of withdrawing from KORUS

Withdrawing from the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement “would not be good in any circumstance,” Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) said Sunday as many lawmakers came out in opposition to news that the Trump administration was considering a push to terminate KORUS. On CNN's “State of the Union,” Flake was asked about the news on Korea – first reported Friday night by Inside U.S. Trade . “I don't think that that would be good in any circumstance,” Flake said. “Now,...

Sources: U.S., in KORUS special session, asked for immediate elimination of Korean agriculture tariffs

During the first-ever special session of the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement’s joint committee last month, the U.S. -- aiming to reduce its bilateral trade deficit -- asked Seoul to immediately drop all of its remaining agriculture tariffs while allowing phaseouts for U.S. agriculture tariffs to be extended by five to 10 years, sources told Inside U.S. Trade . The U.S. was initially said to have not put forward any proposals for how to tackle the trade deficit, despite emphasizing...

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