Tuesday's snap presidential election in South Korea could remove the "political overhang" that was seen by Wall Street as an impediment to getting a trade deal done with the United States, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
Analysts are also upgrading their market forecasts for the country regardless of who wins the election to replace Yoon Suk Yeol, according to the report.
Since Yoon was ousted for imposing martial law in December, South Korea has had three acting presidents, political turbulence that blocked the advance of trade negotiations with the Trump administration, according to the Times.
"We believe the worst will have passed with the election and the removal of political uncertainty domestically," Kathleen Oh, an economist at Morgan Stanley, wrote, according to the Times.
South Korea sent a trade delegation to Washington in late April to meet with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. The sides agreed to craft a trade package aimed at removing new U.S. tariffs before the pause on reciprocal tariffs is lifted in July. A deadline of July 8 was set to resolve the issues.
However, the election outcome threw uncertainty on how South Korea would approach further trade talks ahead of the deadline, according to the report.
South Korea's exports fell in May for the first time in four months, as shipments to the United States dropped on global trade conflict triggered by the sweeping tariffs. South Korea's May shipments to the United States fell 8.1%.
Information from Reuters was used in this report.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.