"Close to Agreement on US Investment; Aiming to Reach and Announce Deal This Week"

[Anchor]

Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Kim Jung-gwan has returned to Korea after visiting the United States to fine-tune final details on investment projects in the US. Minister Kim stated that they are close to reaching agreements on many contentious issues and aim to finalize and announce the deal within this week.

Reporter Jeon Hyeong-u has the details.

[Reporter]

Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Kim Jung-gwan met with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and other officials in New York for three days starting on the 10th to hold final negotiations regarding the U.S. investment projects.

Minister Kim stated that after continuing additional consultations with the U.S., if a final agreement is reached within this week, an announcement will be made.

[Kim Jung-gwan / Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy: It is true that we are close to negotiating agreements on many issues. There are still a few issues remaining. We plan to hold discussions once more through a video conference early this week.]

He also emphasized that the 200 billion dollar limit for strategic investment and the annual limit of 20 billion dollar will not be exceeded, as originally agreed upon with the United States.

Last year, Korea promised 350 billion dollars in investments to the U.S., including 150 billion dollars for shipbuilding cooperation, on the condition that tariffs be lowered from 25% to 15%, and has since been coordinating specific investment projects and detailed conditions.

The construction of the Encinal gas-fired combined cycle power plant in Texas is considered the leading candidate for the first project.

One of the key issues related to this is the supplier for the gas turbines, which account for 20 to 30 percent of the power plant project cost.

It is known that the U.S. wants turbines from domestic U.S. companies, while Korea wants to supply turbines from domestic Korean companies.

Participation in the construction of new large-scale nuclear power plants within the U.S. and the Alaska LNG project are also being discussed as potential investment candidates.

Regarding the construction of nuclear power plants, Korea reportedly wants a portion to be built using Korean-standard nuclear reactors, while the U.S. is known to prefer the Westinghouse model.

It is also known that Korea acquiring a stake in Westinghouse has been put on the negotiation table.

The government plans to report the negotiation results to the National Assembly around the 17th.

(Video Editing: Park Choon-bae)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.