JEJU — The gathering of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) trade ministers is usually a staid meeting, but this year it offered more intrigue and urgency as countries throughout the region scrambled to engage the United States in talks before a 90-day pause on punishing tariffs expires in July.
The meeting, which took place this week on South Korea’s resort island of Jeju, was the first opportunity for the group of mostly Asian economies and the United States to meet collectively since President Donald Trump announced — and then suspended — what he called reciprocal tariffs on dozens of trading partners. The heaviest duties were applied to imports from trading partners in Asia.
The main attraction at the meeting was Jamieson Greer, the US Trade Representative and one of the two main negotiators who reached an agreement for a temporary truce on tariffs with China last weekend. He told reporters he could not do interviews because his schedule was jam-packed with meetings with representatives from various nations.
Cheong Inkyo, South Korea’s minister of trade, said at a news briefing that many participating countries had originally planned to send vice ministers to the meeting but then changed their minds and sent ministers to push for meetings with Greer.
David Boling, a director of Japan and Asia trade at the Eurasia Group and a former US trade negotiator, said most countries are eager to meet with US officials at Apec meetings, but such discussions were even more critical this time because of the looming deadline on July 9.
“It’s all about Trump’s tariffs,” Boling said. “All those trade ministers who come in, their number one goal is to get some sort of face time with Jamieson Greer.”
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer attends the opening ceremony of Apec Ministers Responsible for Trade Meeting at International Convention Centre in Seogwipo on Jeju island, South Korea, on Thursday. (Photo: Reuters)
Last month, Trump imposed tariffs on goods from dozens of countries that he claimed took advantage of the United States by running up trade surpluses.
A week later, after blowback in the financial markets, he suspended the tariffs for 90 days to allow time for negotiations. He kept a 10% “baseline” tariff on all imports.
In setting the reciprocal tariffs, Trump reserved some of the most punishing duties for longtime allies such as South Korea and Japan and countries in Southeast Asia like Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia, which had become manufacturing alternatives to China.
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While many Asian countries have sent delegations to Washington, Britain, one of the few countries that buys more from the United States than it sells and was not subject to the reciprocal tariffs, is the only trading partner that has reached an agreement with the Trump administration so far.
At a news conference Friday, Cheong said he was able to speak with Greer about the progress the countries have made since the start of discussions in early May. He said he explained the “Korean situation” and the challenges of holding trade talks ahead of an election on June 3.
Trump hit South Korea, a longtime US ally, with a 25% tariff. Government officials in Seoul are trying to negotiate with the Trump administration at a delicate time in South Korean politics. Campaigning is beginning for what is expected to be a deeply divided and contentious election, necessitated by the removal last month of former President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was impeached for his short-lived attempt to place the country under martial law.
Greer also met with the vice chair of HD Hyundai, the heavy-industry arm of South Korea’s sprawling Hyundai conglomerate, to discuss opportunities for cooperation in shipbuilding.
Both South Korea and the US have said Trump wants shipbuilding to be part of a trade deal between the two countries. South Korean officials have called it an important negotiating card.
According to South Korean media reports, Greer also met with Li Chenggang, China’s trade envoy, who was part of the Chinese delegation Greer and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent negotiated with last weekend.
Under the agreement, the United States reduced tariffs on Chinese imports to 30% from 145%, and China cut levies on American goods to 10% from 125%. The reprieve is set to expire in early August.
Trade tensions between the United States and China — the world’s two largest economies — loomed large over the meeting. Apec slashed its economic outlook for the region from projections made two months earlier, before Trump announced the reciprocal tariffs, which affect more than half of Apec’s 21 members.
The group, which accounts for around half of global trade and about 60% of economic output, cut its forecast for growth this year to 2.6% from its previous projection of 3.3%. It cited “trade frictions” and “policy uncertainty.”
Carlos Kuriyama, who leads economic and trade research at Apec, said a reduction in trade with the United States would be difficult to overcome.
“The US is the largest market and the largest economy, so it represents a very significant percentage of the global economy,” Kuriyama said. “It will be hard to find a way to replace all these opportunities.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.