The South Korean government has canceled a briefing to the National Assembly on its $350 billion investment plan in the United States that had been scheduled for the 17th.
Kim Sung-won, chairman of the National Assembly's Trade, Industry, Small and Medium Enterprises and Startups Committee, said in a phone call with the Seoul Economic Daily on the 16th that "the briefing scheduled for tomorrow was canceled at the government's request," adding that "a new date has not yet been set."
The committee had planned to receive a detailed report from the Ministry of Trade and Industry on the first project under the U.S. investment plan at a full committee meeting on the 17th. The project the government intended to explain to lawmakers is an energy investment being pursued as the first of the $350 billion investment program, and the details were to be shared with the trade committee and the Finance and Economic Planning Committee.
With the parliamentary briefing postponed, the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Seoul and Washington on the investment, set for the 18th, is now more likely to be rescheduled. Negotiations on the U.S. investment are still being fine-tuned over the size and terms of each project, and the government had sought to brief the relevant standing committees of the National Assembly before moving ahead with the process.
The investment is being pursued under the $350 billion investment plan agreed in last year's tariff negotiations between South Korea and the United States. Investments are currently under review with a focus on energy projects in the United States, with a gas-fired combined-cycle power plant in Texas, U.S. nuclear power plants and liquefied natural gas development in Alaska among those that have been discussed.
Talks between the two countries are continuing over the detailed terms of individual projects. In the case of the Alaska LNG project, a review of its economic viability is under way, and investment terms involving U.S. nuclear company Westinghouse are also said to be part of the negotiations. As a result, the original schedule of signing the MOU after briefing the National Assembly has also changed, according to sources.
