President Trump Welcomes President Moon to the White House

 This week, President Donald J. Trump hosted President Moon of South Korea at the White House.

At their dinner on Thursday evening, President Trump congratulated President Moon on his electoral victory and thanked him for coming to the White House. Early Friday morning, Vice President Pence and President Moon laid a wreath at the Korean War Memorial to commemorate the American and Korean Veterans who lost their lives to preserve freedom in the Korean Peninsula. Later that morning, President Trump and President Moon met privately in the Oval Office. Afterwards, President Trump led an expanded bilateral meeting in the Cabinet room.

 

President Trump and President Moon issued joint statements after the meetings, reaffirming the strong ties between America and South Korea

 

 

 

 

JUNE 30, 2017 AT 6:09 PM ET BY THE WHITE HOUSE

 

 

Remarks by President Trump and President Moon of the Republic of Korea Before Bilateral Meeting

Oval Office

10:21 A.M. EDT

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I want to thank the President of South Korea, President Moon, for being here. We had a great afternoon yesterday. We had fantastic dinner at the White House -- accomplished a lot, having to do with our thoughts on North Korea and, very much, our thoughts on trade.

We are renegotiating a trade deal right now as we speak with South Korea, and hopefully it will be an equitable deal -- it will be a fair deal to both parties. It’s been a rough deal for the United States, but I think that it will be much different and it will be good for both parties. So we’re in the process of doing that.

We’re also in the process of discussing our, frankly, many options -- and we have many options -- with respect to North Korea.

Thank you very much. President.

The President will speak.

PRESIDENT MOON: (As interpreted.) I would like to thank President Trump once again for inviting me to the White House and for his warm welcome. When I won the election last month, President Trump was the first among all foreign leaders to call me to congratulate me. I believe that was to reconfirm the strength of the Korea-U.S. alliance and also President Trump’s warm message to the Korean people who had been suffering through political turmoil.

Last night, at the dinner with President Trump, we discussed various issues through a diverse scope and very honest discussions on issues to include the North Korean nuclear issue and other issues of mutual interest. It was a great opportunity for us to further the trust and friendship between me and President Trump. It was also an opportunity for us to reconfirm the fact that the United States and Korea are walking together on the same path towards a great alliance.

So I hope that through this summit meeting today, I hope that our relationship can further develop into a more meaningful and fruitful relationship.

Thank you very much.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: What many people don’t know is that South Korea is a major trading partner with the United States and we want something that’s going to be good for the American worker. And I think we’ll be able to do that today, and I think we’ll be able to do many other things. So the relationship is very, very strong, and our personal relationship with President Moon -- our personal relationship is very, very good.

Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.

END

10:26 A.M. EDT

 

 

 

Remarks by President Trump, President Moon, Commerce Secretary Ross, and NEC Director Cohn in Bilateral Meeting

Cabinet Room

10:50 A.M. EDT

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Okay, thank you very much. We have many of our great members, our Vice President, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense. We have several of our really wonderful leaders here. And you have your leaders with you and your representatives.

And we're going to be discussing two things mostly, and number one would be North Korea, and we pretty much discussed that last night at length. I think we have a very, very strong, solid plan. And number two is going to be, of course, trade -- because the trade deal is up, and we want to make a deal that's fair for the United States and fair for South Korea. So we’ll start doing that.

Gary Cohn is here. Wilbur Ross is here. And I think that's a very important thing. And, Wilbur, perhaps you’d like to say a few things about trade right now, and we can probably leave the media -- because trade is very important -- for a little while. But perhaps you’d say a few words about trade and what we're looking to do.

SECRETARY ROSS: Yes, sir. The trade imbalance with South Korea has doubled since the KORUS treaty was put into effect, and the largest single component of that is automotive trade. That's an absolute majority of it. So there are a lot of non-tariff trade barriers to U.S. exports. only 25,000 cars per Big Three manufacturer are allowed in based on U.S. standards. Anything above that needs to be on Korean standards.

So that kind of rulemaking affects quite a few industries and really restricts the access that U.S. companies have to the Korean market.

We have a separate problem with oilfield tubular goods and other steel products. There is no domestic market for oilfield tubular goods in Korea. So everything they make is for export, and we had recent trade cases demonstrating that a lot of that is dumped Chinese steel coming as hot-rolled coil and then coming back to the U.S. as oilfield tubular goods.

So there are a lot of very specific problems, and I think the way to address it is to deal product by product with what we can do to change the export side and what we can do to reduce the bad import side.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: All right, thank you very much. You can stay for this also. Perhaps Gary Cohn could say a few words also about trade.

MR. COHN: Yes, thank you, Mr. President. As you know, much of our biggest problem on trade has to do with our economic relationship with China, and we have maintained a very large trade deficit with China, and it continues to grow.

As Wilbur said, China has many predatory practices in the way they deal with us, with intellectual property and trade barriers for us. We're forced to transfer technology into China, forced to have joint ventures in China. We have tariffs and nontariff barriers; unable to own companies in China, as well. And we're dealing with all of their policies.

At some point we’d be interested to hear how you're dealing with the Chinese policies and how you can help us in dealing with Chinese policies.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much. The fact is that the United States has trade deficits with many, many countries, and we cannot allow that to continue. And we’ll start with South Korea right now. But we cannot allow that to continue. This is really a statement that I make about all trade. For many, many years, the United States has suffered through massive trade deficits. That's why we have $20 trillion in debt. So we’ll be changing that.

The good news is we're making great products. And I appreciate very much they're giving -- South Korea is giving very, very big orders to the United States for -- as you know, for military. They're buying many F-35 fighter jets from Lockheed, and they're buying other military equipment at a level that they've never reached before. So that's good.

Also, I understand you're dealing with Alaska -- great state -- on natural gas, and other parts of the United States. We have a lot of natural gas, so we love that you're going to do that.

And things like that will bring down the trade deficit substantially. That's what we like, and we appreciate it very much.

Mr. President, would you like to say something before the media leaves?

PRESIDENT MOON: (Speaks Korean. No translation provided.)

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Okay, we can do that. And I’m sure that everybody understood that answer. (Laughter.) I hope. But it was a very good answer.

Thank you all very much.

END

10:56 A.M. EDT

 

 

U.S. President Donald Trump (central R) and First Lady Melania Trump (central L) wait for the arrival of South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his wife Kim Jung-sook at the South Portico of the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, June 29, 2017.

 

 

 

U.S. President Donald Trump (2nd R) and First Lady Melania Trump (1st R) welcome South Korean President Moon Jae-in (3rd R) and his wife Kim Jung-sook at the South Portico of the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, June 29, 2017.

 

     U.S. President Donald Trump (L) welcomes South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, on June 30, 2017

 

U.S. President Donald Trump (R, Rear) and South Korean President Moon Jae-in (L, Rear) give a joint statement at the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, on June 30, 2017

 

U.S. President Donald Trump (R) shakes hands with South Korean President Moon Jae-in after giving a joint statement at the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, on June 30, 2017