Trump says S. Korea wants to make trade deal with U.S.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said that South Korea wants to make a trade deal with the United States, as Seoul is striving to secure exemptions from his administration’s “reciprocal” and sectoral tariffs.

Trump made the remarks in a Fox News interview released Friday, saying that he will not conclude deals with “everybody,” as a large number of America’s trading partners seek to strike deals to avoid or minimize the impact of new U.S. levies.

“I am in no rush. Look, everybody wants to make a deal with us … South Korea wants to make a deal with us,” he said.

“I am not going to make deals with everybody. I am just going to set the limit. I’ll make some deals, but … because I can’t … you can’t meet with that many people,” he added.

Trump claimed that 150 countries want to make deals with the U.S.

Seoul and Washington have been conducting bilateral consultations with a focus on four major categories: tariff and non-tariff measures, economic security, investment cooperation and currency policy.

Seoul has been seeking to reach a “July package” deal with the Trump administration before July 8, when Trump’s 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs ends.

Reciprocal tariffs, including 25 duties on South Korea, went into effect on April 9, but Trump placed the pause on the tariffs to allow for negotiations.