Following U.S. Tariff Hike Announcement... Ruling Party: "Special Act on U.S. Investment to Be Reviewed as Scheduled in Early February"

Ruling Party Secretary of the Planning and Finance Committee: "December and January Were Deliberation Periods for the Bills"
Five Bills Referred to the Committee... "Coordinating with the Government and Proceeding on a Swift Schedule"

Jeong Taeho, a member of the National Assembly’s Planning and Finance Committee and the floor secretary for the Democratic Party of Korea, stated on January 27 that the "Special Act on Strategic Investment Management between Korea and the United States," which has been submitted to the National Assembly, will be processed according to the legislative schedule set by the National Assembly Act.

U.S. President Donald Trump is delivering a speech at the '2025 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit (APEC CEO SUMMIT)' held at the Gyeongju Arts Center in Gyeongbuk on October 29 last year. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

Ruling party members of the Planning and Finance Committee and Vice Minister of Economy and Finance Lee Hyungil held a meeting at the National Assembly on the morning of the same day to discuss countermeasures in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s sudden announcement of a tariff hike.

After the meeting, Assemblyman Jeong told reporters, "The bill is proceeding through the normal process of introduction and review. The special act was proposed at the end of November last year, and by December, four additional bills had been submitted individually, making a total of five bills. December and January served as a kind of deliberation period following the introduction of the bills, and under normal circumstances, the review process for the special act would begin in February."

He further explained, "Regardless of President Trump’s announcement today, both the government and the National Assembly had already planned to review the bill next month at the government’s request, and the National Assembly was following that procedure. Claims that ‘the Korean government is deliberately delaying this law’ stem from a lack of understanding of the actual situation in the National Assembly."

He added, "It is common practice for requests to expedite the passage of a bill to be made through diplomatic channels, but that has not happened in this case. This situation arose suddenly, so we are currently working to determine why President Trump made this announcement."

Meanwhile, the Planning and Finance Committee is scheduled to meet with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Koo Yooncheol at 4 p.m. at the National Assembly to discuss response measures to the U.S. tariff hike.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.