“It's all about Trump's tariffs”: Asia flows to US trade officers

The assembly of the Minister of Commerce of Economic Cooperation in Asia-Pacific is usually a staid meeting, but this year it offered more intrigue and urgency than the countries in the entire region tried to engage the United States in discussions before a break of 90 days to punish tariffs in July.

The meeting, which took place this week on the South Korean resort Jeju, was the first opportunity for the group of the mainly Asian economies and the United States to meet together since President Trump was announced and then suspended – which he described mutual tariffs against dozens of trading partners. The most difficult tasks were used for imports by trading partners in Asia.

The main attraction at the meeting was Jamieson Greer, the sales representative of the United States and one of the two main negotiators who achieved an agreement on a temporary ceasefire for tariffs with China last weekend. He said reporters that he could not carry out any interviews because his schedule was packed with meetings with representatives from different nations.

Cheong Inkyo, the South Korea Minister of Trade, said in a news that many participating countries originally planned to send Vice Minister to the meeting, but then changed their opinion and sent the ministers to drive at Mr. Greer.

David Boling, a director of Japan and Asia in the Eurasia group and former American trade negotiator, said that most of the countries are striving to meet with American officials at the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation or APEC, but this time such discussions were even more critical because of the impending deadline on July 9th.

“It's all about Trump's tariffs,” said Mr. Boling. “All trade ministers who come in, their goal is to get a kind of face with Jamieson Greer.”