United States of America

KEI recently completed its sixteenth annual Ambassadors’ Dialogue program (previously called the Korea Caravan), featuring Lee Tae-sik, the Republic of Korea’s Ambassador to the United States, and Alexander Vershbow, United…

May brought several significant developments for the KORUS FTA. On May 10, the Bush Administration and Congress announced an agreement on a new trade policy, focusing in particular on labor…

83/751. At press time, 83 days have passed since North Korea tested a nuclear device on October 9, 2006 and 751 days remain in the Bush Presidency. If the stalemate…

With negotiations running down to the wire, Korean and American negotiators announced that they reached a deal just before President George W. Bush’s trade promotion authority expired at 11:59 pm…

By Phil Eskeland After much pressure, the U.S. Department of Commerce just released the study on the effect of imports of steel on U.S. national security that will form the basis of President Donald Trump’s upcoming decision to impose higher tariffs.  The President has until April 11, 2018, to choose among several options outlined in…

By Troy Stangarone In a move that had been expected in recent days, North Korea extended an invitation to South Korean President Moon Jae-in for a summit meeting with Kim Jong-un “at the earliest possible date.” With President Moon having sought to use the Winter Olympic Games in Pyongchang as a means to advance inter-Korean…

By Phil Eskeland Earlier this morning, the U.S. government revealed that the U.S. surpassed all previous records in exporting manufactured and agricultural goods to the Republic of Korea (ROK), reaching $48.3 billion for 2017.  This trend started approximately 1 ½ years ago, but the previous year’s annualized trade data did not fully reveal this development…

By Troy Stangarone To the surprise of even Lee Jae-yong, the Seoul High Court has reduced his sentence related to charges in the scandal surrounding former President Park Geun-hye and suspended his sentence resulting in his immediate release from prison. After having been convicted on five charges in August of 2017 related to bribery, embezzlement,…

Please join KEI and KIEP for a discussion about the first 10 years of KORUS and the future of the U.S.-Korea economic relationship.