Trump, Lee finalise contentious US–South Korea trade deal $350 billion to avert tariffs?

US President Donald Trump and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung finalized details of their fraught trade deal at a summit in South Korea on October 29.

“We made our deal, pretty much finalized it," Trump said at a dinner with Lee and other regional leaders on the sidelines of an Asia Pacific forum, Caliber.Az reports.

For the record, the allies unveiled a deal in late July under which Seoul would avoid the worst of U.S. tariffs on its imports by agreeing to pump $350 billion of new investments into the United States in return for lower tariff rates.

Trump and Lee agreed that Seoul can split its promised $350 billion investment fund into $200 billion in cash to be paid in instalments of $20 billion, Lee's aides said.

The other $150 billion is to be spent on investments in shipbuilding, which South Korea has promised to help Trump restore. But talks over the structure of those investments had been deadlocked.

By Khagan Isayev