![Exported American cherries being promoted at a discount market in Korea. / [Image by U.S. Department of Agriculture via Flickr, CC BY 2.0]](https://staticr1.blastingcdn.com/media/photogallery/2017/9/7/660x290/b_502x220x82/exported-american-cherries-being-promoted-at-a-discount-market-in-korea-image-by-us-department-of-agriculture-via-flickr-cc-by-20_1556683.jpg "Exported American cherries being promoted at a discount market in Korea. / [Image by U.S. Department of Agriculture via Flickr, CC BY 2.0]")
Over the several months that Donald Trump has been President, he has been obsessed with trade agreements that the U.S. makes with other countries. His only solution for them has been to cancel agreements altogether, such as he threatened to do with NAFTA. His representatives have also targeted the European Union -- specifically Germany -- for their trade agreements with the U.S.
Trump targeting trade over trade deficits
It's been reported that the administration has already started playing "hardball" with Canada over the importing and exporting of lumber.
Now, the President has his sights aimed at South Korea over the five-year-old Free Trade Agreement that the U.S. has with them. While the President signaled his next move against South Korea in June saying that the deficits needed to stop.
Reasons for the deficit for a country that is much smaller than the U.S. are said to fall more on the fact that Americans spend more on Korean products than Koreans spend on American products. But one report by NPR's All Things Considered titled: "Trump Pledges To Withdraw From U.S.-South Korea Trade Agreement" points to the fact that while Americans enjoy Korean products such as electronics and cars, Koreans are helping to keep American farmers employed with their purchases of products such as soybean oil.
Hurting American farmers, spooking U.S. Trade Representative
In the segment report, a man named Ron Moore who sells 2,000 acres of soy beans and corn in Illinois said that he had seen the benefits of the trade agreement with South Korea for Americans. He said that 180,000 metric tons of soy bean oil is sent to South Korea every year and that ending the trade agreement would devastate farmers.
Financial Times reported in an article titled: "US retreats from a threat to tear up South Korea trade pact" that Trump's U.S. representative Robert Lighthizer appeared to back away from the President's threat, while he was in Mexico on Tuesday. Lighthizer was involved in the second round of talks with Mexico over the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which President Trump has continued to threaten.
After President Trump made the threat recently to leave the Korus pact, there was reportedly a lot of backlash from businesses, Congress and the farmers that would be impacted. Should the President follow through on his threat, there would still be six months to unwind the pact. Lighthizer echoed the sentiment that many who have been watching Trump make threats of withdrawing from every deal he doesn't like, saying that he hoped they would renegotiate something rather than withdraw altogether.
