The special act on investment in the United States cleared the Special Committee on Handling the Special Act on Investment in the United States (Special Committee on U.S. Investment) at the National Assembly on the 9th. The special act on investment in the United States is expected to be handled at the National Assembly plenary session scheduled for the 12th.
The Special Committee on U.S. Investment held a subcommittee meeting in the morning and a full committee meeting in the afternoon and passed, by bipartisan agreement, the Special Act on Strategic Investment Management between Korea and the United States (Special Act on Investment in the United States).
The bill requires the establishment of a decision-making system for investment in the United States by creating a "Project Management Committee" under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources to manage investment risk and an "Operations Committee" under the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Under this structure, the project management committee reviews the commercial rationality of candidate projects for investment in the United States, after which the operations committee decides whether to proceed with the investment.
A new Korea-U.S. Strategic Investment Corporation will be established to exclusively support investment in the United States. The Korea-U.S. Strategic Investment Corporation will have capital of 2 trillion won and no more than three executives. Separate from the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI) and the Ministry of Economy and Finance, a decision-making body called the "Risk Management Committee" will be set up under the Korea-U.S. Strategic Investment Corporation. Only those with more than 10 years of experience in finance, investment, or strategic industries can serve as president of the Korea-U.S. Strategic Investment Corporation. The corporation will have no more than 50 employees.
The funding sources of the Korea-U.S. Strategic Investment Fund are: ▲ contributions to the corporation ▲ entrusted asset obtained with prior consent from the entrusting institution ▲ funds related to the issuance of Korea-U.S. strategic investment bonds ▲ government or entrusting-institution borrowing fund ▲ contributions from corporations, associations, and organizations ▲ income such as fund management profits ▲ other resources prescribed by presidential decree.
To secure transparency in investment in the United States, the government must submit an annual report each year containing fund management and investment performance. Instead of obtaining National Assembly approval for each investment, the government must give prior reports to the National Assembly's Finance and Economy Planning Committee and the Trade. Industry Energy. SMEs. and Startups Committee.
During the bill review, "corporate contributions" were excluded from the fund's resources. Park Su-young of the People Power Party, the opposition secretary of the Special Committee on U.S. Investment, met with reporters after the subcommittee and said, "In the government plan, the Bank of Korea and the Ministry of Economy and Finance kept saying $20 billion would be possible with only foreign exchange reserve revenue, but the bill included corporate contributions," adding, "There were concerns that this would twist the arms of corporations to raise resources, so we removed it."
The National Assembly has accelerated handling of the special act on investment in the United States following U.S. President Donald Trump's move to reinstate higher tariffs. Earlier, in January, U.S. President Donald Trump said Korea was not implementing a trade agreement and announced that reciprocal tariffs and the like would be reinstated from 15% to 25%.