‘It’s All About Trump’s Tariffs’: Asia Flocks to U.S. Trade Official

The gathering of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation trade ministers is usually a staid meeting, but this year it offered more intrigue and urgency as countries throughout the region scrambled to engage the United States in talks before a 90-day pause on punishing tariffs expires in July.

The meeting, which took place this week on South Korea’s resort island of Jeju, was the first opportunity for the group of mostly Asian economies and the United States to meet collectively since President Trump announced — and then suspended — what he called reciprocal tariffs on dozens of trading partners. The heaviest duties were applied to imports from trading partners in Asia.

The main attraction at the meeting was Jamieson Greer, the United States Trade Representative and one of the two main negotiators who reached an agreement for a temporary truce on tariffs with China last weekend. He told reporters that he could not do interviews because his schedule was jam-packed with meetings with representatives from various nations.

Cheong Inkyo, South Korea’s minister of trade, said at a news briefing that many participating countries had originally planned to send vice ministers to the meeting but then changed their minds and sent ministers to push for meetings with Mr. Greer.

David Boling, a director of Japan and Asia trade at the Eurasia group and a former U.S. trade negotiator, said most countries are eager to meet with American officials at meetings of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC, but such side discussions were even more critical this time because of the looming deadline on July 9.

“It’s all about Trump’s tariffs,” said Mr. Boling. “All those trade ministers who come in, their number one goal is to get some sort of face time with Jamieson Greer.”