A year after Donald Trump shook hands with Ursula von der Leyen on a trade deal, POLITICO assesses how their commitments have held up. 🔗 www.politico.eu/article/trad...

Update: "Hyundai Motor Group has scrapped its plan to invest about $2.3 billion (3.4 trillion won) in building a hydrogen ecosystem in #Canada, saying there is no longer a reason to proceed with the “Team Korea” proposal after Canada’s next-generation submarine contract went to #Germany."

📉 South Korea’s Market Boom—and the Bubble Beneath It Even as Samsung set records for the most profitable quarter, the chipmaker's stocks fell 6.3% while SK Hynix lost 5.7% @evanramstad.bsky.social with @csis.org warns of the risks caused by the dominance of these 2 companies 📚: buff.ly/dQv2TZH

Samsung Electronics said that its latest quarterly operating profit was nearly 20 times higher than last year’s, spurred by a seemingly insatiable demand for memory chips used in data centers for artificial intelligence.

Ending months of intense bidding, #Canada has reportedly selected #Germany's TKMS as the preferred contractor for its next-generation submarine fleet, passing over #Korea’s Hanwha Ocean.

Trump holds up to $130,000 in Coupang shares. According to his financial disclosure report, released by the Government Ethics Office, he “traded Coupang shares a total of 18 times” and repeated “a pattern of buying and selling shares in what appear to have been three broad rounds of transactions.”

Is A.I. creating jobs or killing them? Adding to inflation or fixing it? Boosting productivity or doing little? Nobody knows. And our data (public & private) isn't providing clear answers. My latest on the A.I. data gap and the challenge it poses for policymakers: www.nytimes.com/2026/07/02/b...

The Blue House pushed back against the U.S. House Judiciary Committee report alleging that South Korea is discriminating against Coupang, saying “all investigations into Coupang have been conducted in a non-discriminatory manner in accordance with due process under domestic law.”

A new U.S. House Judiciary Committee report alleges that South Korea is using discriminatory regulatory enforcement and digital laws to target American-owned businesses, with Coupang as its central example, while shielding Korean competitors.

"If the commission ultimately concludes that Google abused its ​market dominance, ⁠it may impose a fine of up to 6% of the relevant affected revenue of $9.1 billion."

“‘We’ve received notice that the Department of Commerce has lifted export controls on Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5,’ Anthropic said in a statement. ’We’ll begin restoring access tomorrow, and will share an update soon.‘”

Riding the AI boom, South Korea makes a high-stakes, $600 billion bet on chips amid concerns that the choice of fab location is potentially a politically motivated move.

"He added that the tariff would be immediately imposed and supersede any other prior trade deals that existed with the country."

US Under Sec of State for Economic Affairs Helberg criticizes digital sovereignty as a vision in which every country commands AI — “its own computers, its own data, its own models, raised at home and owned at home.” His verdict: “It is a seductive vision. It is also backward and counterproductive.”

🚨EXCLUSIVE: Japan is threatening legal action against the EU over the bloc's new steel tariff regime, with Tokyo claiming the 50% tariffs breach the EU-Japan FTA. Borderlex's @chrishorseman.bsky.social with the scoop, ably assisted Messi-like by Iana Dreyer and me borderlex.net/2026/06/23/e...

Samsung is going big on workplace AI with OpenAI: "Under the agreement, ChatGPT and Codex will be made available to all Samsung Electronics employees in Korea, and all employees worldwide in its Device eXperience (DX) division. This represents one of OpenAI’s largest enterprise deployments to date."

"Beijing’s regulators have recently summoned domestic chipmakers... to report how their products compare against Nvidia’s China chips... They concluded that China’s AI processors had reached a level comparable to or exceeding that of the Nvidia products allowed under export controls..."

"The WP reported... that the WH began reviewing sanctions after discovering a 'South Korean telecommunications company' suspected of ties to China among the access permission lists submitted by Anthropic. This... reportedly became the catalyst for the blanket ban on foreign nationals."

Should we brace for USTR to allege that the UK’s measure discriminates against American technology companies? 🙄

Another industry piece in @economist.com — this time on #shipbuilding, reported from my hometown of #Ulsan, South Korea. America is turning to Korea to rebuild shipbuilding; Korea is turning to migrant workers from lower-income Asian countries to sustain its own.

Amid back-and-forth negotiations over a U.S.-Iran peace deal, President Trump posted this image on Truth Social yesterday without any explanation, sending South Korean media into a frenzy.

"The US government, citing national security authorities, has issued an export control directive to suspend all access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 by any foreign national, whether inside or outside the United States, including foreign national Anthropic employees."

Hyundai Motor has become ground zero for the defining labor battle of the physical AI era. The Hyundai union has a demand no union has ever raised before: "Hire more workers, not robots." For my KTTW, I cover what's at stake, why Korea is uniquely vulnerable, and why the world will be watching.

"The EU wants to do business with countries with an 'open market,' that are promoting 'secure technologies' and that are 'committed to a rules-based digital world,' Virkkunen told POLITICO in an exclusive interview ahead of her Brazil visit."

"Even if the [AI] boom continues, it will raise hard questions about how to equitably share newfound wealth. Mr Lee says that... using a portion of those excess profits to support consumers’ purchasing power through a basic income could be 'one of the very useful policy options.'"

EU and South Korea Sign #DTA at Summit in Brussels: The agreement prohibits either party from requiring data localization, meaning Korean and EU companies can freely process user data from their home servers — unless a legitimate public policy objective, like cybersecurity, justifies an exception.

"In their letter, the trade groups urged the Trump administration to collaborate with #memory chipmakers and chip buyers to expand capacity in the US and allied jurisdictions. They also suggested using trade deal mechanisms or the Chips Act program to secure the supply chain..."

“Protesters... rallied for a second day, demanding a re-run ​of local elections... Around 10,000 citizens were ‌estimated to have gathered... Fifty of 14,300 polling stations ran ​out of ballots and voting was temporarily suspended at 22 ​polling stations due to delays in receiving supplies...“

"In an interview, Kim Young-hoon told Reuters that companies like Samsung Electronics that outperform profit targets should consider sharing excess gains with suppliers, ​subcontractors and their workers, after deducting taxes, given their contributions to corporate growth."

"The EU is moving to counter American dominance in technology by reaching for one of the oldest tools in its arsenal: industrial strategy... the real focus of the proposed legislation is on measures aimed at helping European companies grow into serious contenders capable of taking on U.S. Big Tech."

On June 3, during South Korea's local elections — including the Seoul mayoral race — polling stations in parts of Seoul ran out of ballots. Some voters reportedly left without casting a ballot.

"Greer attacked the legislation, approved Wednesday by the Cabinet of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, as treating American companies 'like a piggy bank for pet, protectionist projects.' ... the U.S. trade chief argued the draft law would force American companies to bankroll German cultural projects."

The #Samsung Effect: "The timing of the #TSMC town hall coincided with a tentative end to a monthslong confrontation between... Samsung and its largest worker union... TSMC does not have an organized labor union, but its employees had started to express their frustrations publicly in online forums."

@economist.com: "North-east Asia’s export industries increasingly operate on two tracks. On one track, the boom in artificial intelligence is driving high-tech exports... On the second track, the rest of industry is clapped out... In areas such as cars and chemicals, China is lapping the trio."

S Korea makes about two-thirds of the world’s memory chips. AI has turned that dominance into a profit boom. Now comes the harder question: who gets the windfall? Today, Seoul’s labor minister called chips “like air in the AI era,” hinting at their public-interest stakes despite private ownership.

Huh? 😳

"The Coupang dispute, to many in South Korea, is a sign of a persistent gap in trust in the alliance with the United States. Many South Koreans now consider the alliance predatory, particularly under Mr. Trump."

"The Android-operated device was first promoted as 'Made in the USA' in June 2025... But Trump Mobile has since changed the language on its website to 'designed with American values in mind.'"

Update: "Samsung Electronics’ management and its union leaders reached a tentative bonus-pay agreement at the 11th hour... The union said it will suspend its May 21-June 7 strike until further notice, as union members will vote on the tentative deal on May 22 through May 27."

"President Lee Jae Myung and Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi ​said after a meeting... that they would deepen ​coordination to stabilise energy supply lines and expand cooperation with other Asian ⁠partners, as supply disruption from war in the Gulf strains their import-dependent economies."

Update on Samsung strike: D-3 - Chairman Lee issued a public apology; last-minute talks resumed - Korea's PM warned of emergency arbitration if the strike damages the economy - A court injunction was granted, limiting the strike's scope; but the union vowed to strike anyway within the court's limits

[HELP] U.S.-Taiwan Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) Anyone who has the official text of the MOU signed by the American Institute in Taiwan and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office on January 15, 2026? Any leads appreciated — throwing this out to the trade crowd. Thanks! 🙏

"Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he declined to answer Xi’s question about whether the U.S. would defend Taiwan. Trump said he would decide about selling weapons to Taiwan. 'I made no commitment either way,' he said. 'The last thing we need right now is a war that’s 9,500 miles away.'"

US Section 122 Tariffs The Trump administration asked the United States Court of International Trade to pause a ruling that declared the president’s latest 10 % global tariffs unlawful while the government appeals.

@sumsung.bsky.social has a big problem. And it's not just about chips. AI is booming. Profits are soaring. But one question is getting louder: who gets the money? A strike threat has been rattling Samsung for months, quietly holding global chip supply hostage. My latest KTTW piece unpacks it all.👇

"The first project is reportedly an energy infrastructure initiative, such as the construction of a LNG export terminal in Louisiana... both countries will establish and operate the 'Korea-U.S. Shipbuilding Cooperation Center' in Washington, D.C., within this year."

This week, the #WTO General Council considered Korea's statement: "Preserving the Spirit of Open and Predictable Trade: Collective Restraint Against Actions Undermining Trade Liberalization" docs.wto.org/dol2fe/Pages...

Big news on the Section 122 tariffs -- US Court of International Trade just ruled against them.

"From Germany and France to Finland and the Netherlands, a growing number of politicians are questioning the wisdom of handing over critical operations and troves of sensitive data to a few giants tied to Washington."

Follow-up: South Korea’s Foreign Ministry responded to U.S. Republican lawmakers’ concerns over alleged discrimination against U.S. companies, including Coupang, saying “measures such as the Coupang investigation are being carried out fairly and without discrimination under domestic law.”