Donald Trump's Asian tour, precisely when an Asia-Pacific summit is taking place between the leaders of countries in the region, is bearing its first fruits. After tense negotiations, the American president has managed to secure the signing of an advantageous trade agreement with South Korea, with which he hopes to obtain a capital investment of up to 350 billion dollars from Seoul. South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, meanwhile, has secured a settlement to the US's stifling import and export tariffs with his country, one of the world's leading technology producers.
Trade negotiations between the two countries had been deadlocked since the summer, when talks were frozen, and were not looking good going into today's meeting. In fact, the two countries appear to have reached agreement with some surprise. "The outlook was not encouraging even last night, and today there has been dramatic progress," Kim Yong-beom, South Korea's presidential policy chief, told Reuters, without elaborating on the final provisions of the agreement.
The deal comes just hours after North Korea successfully test-fired a nuclear-capable ballistic missile over the Pacific Ocean, a development that heightens tensions in the region. Trump did not attach too much importance to this threatening gesture by Pyongyang, and now prepares, reinforced by his agreement with South Korea, his imminent meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, a meeting between the two most important economic powers in the world and one that could affect all the world's economies, whether on good terms or not.