U.S. ally South Korea, one of the world’s biggest buyers of oil and natural gas, is looking to import more crude and LNG from the United States to diversify its energy supply and reduce its trade surplus with America, South Korean Energy and Trade Minister, Ahn Duk-geun, said on Thursday.
South Korea, the world’s third-largest importer of LNG after China and Japan, is considering more energy imports from the U.S. to potentially stave off tariffs that incoming President Donald Trump has promised to introduce on trade partners.
“Other countries are all talking about how they need to ease the growing trade deficit under the Trump administration,” Ahn told reporters, as quoted by Bloomberg.
“We are pretty much in the same situation so we are thinking about increasing energy imports, and there’s also a need to diversify supplies to improve energy security,” the South Korean minister added.
Just before the U.S. presidential election in November, reports emerged that South Korea’s rising trade surplus with the United States could prompt Korean companies to buy more U.S. oil and gas if Trump becomes president, as he is expected to focus on America’s trade deficit with partners.
Officials in South Korea have been running scenarios of the country’s future trade and have concluded that the Trump administration is likely to focus on the state of trade between the U.S. and its partners, including South Korea. However, as South Korea’s trade surplus with the U.S. has increased in recent years, the government of South Korea could urge local companies to buy more oil and gas from America if the U.S.-South Korea trade comes under scrutiny.
Trump has vowed to impose tariffs of 10% on all U.S. imports and warned Europe last month that the EU should buy more oil and gas from the United States or risk tariffs.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
