Scott Bessent Says US 'May Be Moving Faster Than I Thought' On Trade Deal With South Korea

In an Oval Office meeting, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent spoke about a bilateral meeting with South Korean officials.

Transcript

00:00I don't think he will. I think he wants to make peace.

00:04I think he wants to end it.

00:06And I feel pretty confident of that.

00:08But we're going to know pretty soon.

00:10Do you have meetings with other world leaders when you're in Rome?

00:16Yes, I will.

00:17Which leaders do you want to meet, sir?

00:19Well, I'd like to meet them all.

00:21That would be nice. I'd like to take care of all of them.

00:24But we have many of them there and they all want to meet.

00:27They want to meet about trade.

00:29And we are making some great inroads and great deals.

00:33You might want to speak about that, Mr. Secretary.

00:35We had a very successful bilateral meeting with the Republic of South Korea today.

00:40We may be moving faster than I thought.

00:44And we will be talking technical terms as early as next week

00:49as we reach an agreement on understanding as soon as next week.

00:53So South Koreans came early.

00:55They came with their A game.

00:57And we will see if they follow through on that.

01:01We will go around with Dr. McCurthy.

01:04Thank you for coming back now.