SEOUL (Reuters) -The chairman of South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Jay Y. Lee departed on Tuesday to Washington for a business trip, a company spokesperson said, a day after unveiling a $16.5 billion deal to supply chips made in Texas to Tesla.
The Yonhap News Agency said in a report Lee was expected to support ongoing trade talks between South Korea and the United States during his trip.
South Korea’s presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said she was not aware of Lee’s trip and could not provide further comment on matters related to a private company.
Top South Korean government officials are converging on Washington in a push to clinch a trade deal ahead of an August 1 deadline to remove or reduce tariffs threatened by U.S. President Donald Trump against the country’s key industrial exports.
Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol said on Tuesday he would seek a mutually beneficial trade deal when he meets U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent for talks this week, while Foreign Minister Cho Hyun is set to meet U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
(Reporting by Joyce Lee, Ju-Min Park and Heekyong Yang in Seoul Editing by Ed Davies)
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