"ROK a Core Ally and Economic-Security Partner... Tariffs Reduced Trade Deficits With China, ROK and Others"

With roughly six months to go before this year’s midterm elections, the administration of United States of America (U.S.) President Donald Trump released a report touting its economic achievements since taking office last year. While describing the Republic of Korea (ROK) as a "core partner," the Trump administration also boasted that the U.S. trade deficit with ROK has narrowed.
The Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) on the 13th (local time) posted the "2026 Economic Report of the President" on the White House website. In the report, CEA stressed that the Trump administration’s key growth strategies are tax cuts, deregulation, protectionist trade policies, and expansion of energy production. It also claimed that during the Trump presidency, the U.S. trade deficit with foreign countries has shrunk significantly.
According to the report, the U.S. average monthly goods trade deficit was 101 billion dollars in 2024, but had fallen to 87 billion dollars (about 128 trillion won) by November 2025. In particular, total imports of goods from China between January and October last year decreased by 97.1 billion dollars from a year earlier, a drop of 26.7%. The share of Chinese products in total U.S. imports also declined from 13.4% to 9.3% over the same period. CEA emphasized that total imports from countries other than China also fell sharply, including Canada (down 20 billion dollars, -5.8%), Germany (down 6.4 billion dollars, -4.8%), ROK (down 5.7 billion dollars, -5.2%), and Republic of Singapore (down 4.7 billion dollars, -12.9%). By contrast, exports to the U.S. increased for Taiwan (up 59.6 billion dollars, 61.5%), Switzerland (up 54.4 billion dollars, 125.3%), Vietnam (up 45.5 billion dollars, 40.4%), Ireland (up 39.8 billion dollars, 46.8%), and Mexico (up 23.9 billion dollars, 5.6%).
While arguing that the trade balance with ROK has improved, CEA highlighted that the U.S. is cooperating with ROK in trade, investment, artificial intelligence (AI), and energy. In the report, CEA described the relationship with ROK as a "strengthened economic partnership" and a "core strategic partner." In a section titled "Deepening the U.S.–ROK Partnership," it asserted that the two countries concluded an enhanced economic partnership agreement in November last year, referring to the ROK investment commitments in the U.S. agreed by the two leaders in October. In addition, in Chapter 4, "Energy Hegemony," CEA stated that the ROK government pledged on July 31 last year to invest more than 100 billion dollars to purchase U.S. energy products. At the same time, in Chapter 8, "Defense Industry," it listed ROK, along with Australia, Israel, and Japan, as one of the U.S. four core allies. Chapter 5, "The Revolution of Artificial Intelligence," noted that when comparing Research and Development (R&D) spending as a share of gross domestic product (GDP), ROK ranks second in the world at 5.2%, following Israel at 6%.
pjw@fnnews.com Park Jong-won Reporter