Top trade officials from South Korea, Japan, and China are scheduled to meet in Seoul this weekend to discuss economic cooperation and explore strategies to respond to mounting trade pressure from the United States, Bloomberg reports, citing Yonhap News.
South Korea’s Industry Minister Ahn Duk-geun will host the meeting on Sunday with Japan’s Yoji Muto and China’s Wang Wentao. This will be the first trilateral gathering of its kind among the three nations in five years. While South Korea’s Industry Ministry declined to confirm the report, the meeting is widely expected to proceed.
The timing of the meeting is significant, coming just days after President Donald Trump signed a proclamation implementing a 25% tariff on auto imports, effective April 3. Trump has frequently cited the three Asian nations as examples of trade abusers and is expected to announce broader “reciprocal tariffs” around the same time.
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has indicated that Japan won’t rule out taking countermeasures against the US auto tariffs after repeated pleas for an exemption were ignored.
At the upcoming meeting, the trade chiefs are likely to discuss a potential free trade agreement (FTA). The leaders of the three nations pledged to accelerate talks on such a deal at a summit last May. However, since then, leadership changes have occurred in two of the three countries, and all three are now working to mitigate the impact of the Trump administration’s tariff policies.
Tokyo is expected to reaffirm its commitment to a free and open trade environment and emphasize its strong economic ties with its neighbors. Japan is expected to host the next leaders’ summit among the three nations, following a recent meeting of their top diplomats in Tokyo. Beijing, too, has been seeking to stabilize relations with its major trading partners amid escalating tensions over Washington’s trade policies.
