Domestic Business Community Fully Mobilizes Overseas Networks to Respond to 'Trump 2.0'

Trump to Meet Domestic Business Leaders?... Hankyung Business Association to Hold Korea-US Business Meeting Next Month

South Korea's business community, centered around the four major conglomerates, has begun establishing a response system for the second term of the Donald Trump administration, which will take office in January next year.

Yonhap News

Samsung, SK, Hyundai Motor, and LG plan to strengthen communication with the U.S. political sphere, including the second Trump administration, based on the networks and overseas government relations organizations formed during Trump's first term.

According to the business community on the 10th, following the confirmation of former President Trump's re-election in the U.S. presidential election held on the 5th (local time), attention is focused on the networks that domestic business leaders have built with Trump.

First, Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong was the only Korean businessperson invited when President Trump, as president-elect, held a 'Tech Summit' for IT business leaders worldwide in 2016. However, Chairman Lee was under investigation for the political scandal at the time and was prohibited from leaving the country by the special prosecutor, so he could not attend the event. Instead, he greeted President Trump along with other major domestic group chairmen during Trump's visit to Korea in June 2019. At that occasion, President Trump directly named Chairman Lee and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and expressed gratitude for their investments in the U.S.

Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group and president of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, sent a letter to President-elect Trump on the 7th, congratulating him by saying, "Firm and decisive leadership will accelerate the recovery of the U.S. economy and contribute to the sustained prosperity of the global economy." Chairman Chey is likely to visit Washington D.C. in February next year to attend the 'Trans-Pacific Dialogue (TPD)' shortly after Trump's inauguration. The Choi Jong-hyun Academic Foundation, chaired by Chey, has been holding the TPD annually in the U.S. since 2021, discussing international issues and seeking cooperative solutions with current and former senior officials from Korea, the U.S., and Japan, as well as world-renowned scholars, think tanks, and business leaders.

Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Eui-sun has maintained communication by building relationships with members of the U.S. Republican Party, to which Trump belongs. Notably, during Trump's first term, Chairman Chung recruited many former high-ranking officials to handle the group's overseas government relations. For example, in 2020, Robert Hood, former Deputy General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Defense, was appointed Vice President in charge of government affairs at the Washington office, and in January this year, Sung Kim, former U.S. Ambassador to South Korea, joined the group as an advisor.

Chairman Chung also personally met Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the U.S. Governor of Arkansas and a close aide to Trump, when she visited Korea in March this year. Due to these connections, Fred Fleitz, Deputy Director of the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) and another close aide to Trump, visited Hyundai Motor Group's headquarters in July, the only domestic conglomerate he visited. Hyundai Motor Group also held a meeting in March with Jamison Greer, former Chief of Staff to Robert Lighthizer, who is expected to lead the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) again.

LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo recruited Joe Haggin, who served as Deputy Chief of Staff at the White House during Trump's first term, to lead the newly established Washington office and oversee external cooperation with the U.S. government and Congress. In April last year, Chairman Koo personally visited the Washington office and is known to have discussed various aspects of U.S. trade policy directions and prospects after the U.S. presidential election with Director Haggin and others.

The four major groups have also strengthened their overseas government relations organizations to build networks.

Samsung Electronics upgraded its Global Public Affairs (GPA) team, a global government relations organization responsible for managing overseas subsidiaries and communication with local political and business circles, to a division-level unit at the end of last year.

SK Group plans to target personnel from Trump's second term based on 'SK Americas,' its North American government relations control tower.

Hyundai Motor Group also elevated its overseas government relations organization, the Global Policy Office (GPO), to a business unit level earlier this year.

LG Group has been operating the Global Strategy Development Institute, a global response headquarters, since last year.

In addition, group chairmen are reportedly coordinating behind the scenes to meet with Trump.

Although no specific plans for visiting the U.S. have been announced yet, considering that former President Joe Biden met individually with Chairman Chung Eui-sun and Chairman Chey Tae-won, similar opportunities with Trump are expected in the future.

Among domestic economic organizations, the Korea Economic Association (HanKyungHyup), the largest private economic organization in Korea, will play the role of 'bridge' between the business communities of the two countries. HanKyungHyup and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce will hold the 35th Korea-U.S. Business Conference in Washington D.C. in the second week of next month. This event is expected to be the first meeting between political and business figures from Korea and the U.S. since Trump's election.

With the attendance of president-level officials in charge of overseas government relations from the four major groups?Samsung, SK, Hyundai Motor, and LG?it is anticipated that meetings with influential local figures will be arranged through the efforts of Ryu Jin, chairman of HanKyungHyup, who has close ties with the Republican Party.