South Korea watching US-China trade issue closely, measures prepared

South Korea, along with China, avoided the currency-manipulator label in twice-yearly US Treasury report

South Korea’s finance minister said on Thursday the trade tussle between the United States and China was being closely watched and that the country had prepared measures for various scenarios.

“There are unofficial talks going on between the two countries (the United States and China) regarding the trade issue and (South Korea) is closely watching how the situation is going to unfold,” Kim Dong-yeon told reporters on Thursday.

Kim also said there was no change to the ministry’s stance that it would take smoothing measures to stabilise foreign exchange markets in cases of sharp volatility. South Korea, along with China, avoided the currency-manipulator label in twice-yearly U.S. Treasury report, but was kept on a currency “monitoring list”.