SEOUL – South Korea’s LG Energy Solution was using workarounds to US visa restrictions well before Donald Trump returned as president and his administration launched a massive crackdown that detained hundreds of LG workers, internal documents show.

LG Energy Solution’sUS reliance on a visa waiver program started under Trump’s predecessors, reflecting long-running problems South Korean companies say they face in getting short-term visas for specialists they need for their high-tech plants in the US
Company guidelines, detailed in the August 2023 LG documents seen by Reuters, advise employees and subcontractors to use the short-term Electronic System for Travel Authorization waiver program, avoiding business visa procedures, after many visa applications had been rejected.

More than 300 Koreans, including 250 LG employees and contractors, were detained this month at LG’s car battery venture with Hyundai Motor, in the US Department of Homeland Security’s biggest immigration raid ever.

The globally publicized raid near Savannah, Georgia, including videos of shackled workers, sent shockwaves through South Korea, a major US investor and one of Washington’s closest Asian allies.

The Trump administration has signalled it wants to revise visa policy to accommodate South Korean investment. But the entrenched use of ESTA waivers, rather than applying for B-1 or other work visas, highlights risks for South Korean companies building factories in the US as they seek to avoid Trump’s tariffs and send more skilled workers to support the expansion, even as Trump tightens immigration enforcement.

The LG guidelines for employees and subcontractors cite increasing US rejections of B-1 business visa requests by South Koreans, recommending instead the ESTA visa-free travel option.

DON’T SAY ‘WORK’
The guidelines provide tips, such as advising workers to dress neatly for US customs interviews, bring invitation letters from their US business partners and avoid saying “work” in the interviews.

“Using the word ‘work’ to describe the purpose of your visit can cause suspicion and lead to US entry denial,” the guidelines say.

They caution against excessive use of ESTA, warning that those who use it to enter the US frequently and stay for two to three months per visit could be denied entry at the airport.

US officials say the detained workers were engaged in activities beyond the scope of their visa authorization or overstayed their visas. A US immigration lawyer representing some of the detained LG workers has said they were doing legally authorized activities. The workers were released and returned home to cheers and emotional reunions last week.

“We advised employees to utilize ESTA for business trips, given the high rejection rate of B-1 visas at the time and the fact that a B-1 visa denial would also block ESTA eligibility,” LG told Reuters in a statement responding to questions on its guidelines.

“In March last year, we updated our guidelines, advising employees to use ESTA for short-term or one-time assignments of less than one month, and to obtain appropriate visas, such as ESTA, B-1 visa or L-1 visa, for trips lasting between one and six months,” the company said.

ESTA allows stays of up to 90 days, half the limit of the B-1 visa. Both restrict the types of work that holders can undertake and are not meant to be used repeatedly.
About half the detained Korean workers were on ESTA, including 44% of the LG workers, lawmaker Han Jeong-ae has said, citing company data.

REASONABLE BECAME ‘ABUSE’
State Department guidance says temporary business visitors can “install, service, or repair commercial or industrial equipment or machinery purchased from a company outside the United States or to train US workers to perform such services”.

Immigration lawyers say such activities, as well as training US construction workers, can qualify under ESTA waivers and the B-1 visa.

“Employees on business trips are responsible for installing machinery manufactured outside the United States and for set-up to ensure early stabilization of production processes, as well as transferring necessary know-how to locally hired workers,” LG told Reuters. “These activities fall within the intended purposes of ESTA or B-1 visas.”

Some South Korean workers have used ESTA to stay for up to three months and then visit again to continue their work, which could put them at risk of being denied US entries, immigration lawyers say.

“What began perhaps as a reasonable use of ESTA became an abuse,” said Robert Marton, a US immigration lawyer not involved in the Georgia case.

LG said it has asked the US to “consider creating a new visa type,” given that “B-1 visa and ESTA applications were denied despite being aligned with the intended purpose of travel.”

“Our company hopes that, for the smooth conduct of business, both governments will provide clear interpretations of the scope of work permitted under B-1/B-2 visas and ESTA, and that the visa system will be improved as soon as possible.”

South Korea said on Sunday that US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau had expressed regret over the raid and called for Washington and Seoul to speed up working-level consultations to ensure the issuance of visas commensurate with the contributions of Korean workers. — Reuters

UNITED NATIONS – United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher hopes the world body will fight back against a “sustained attack” on its values and finances next week at an annual gathering of world leaders, and said humanitarians could not afford to wait for the US to restore funding.

Aid worker killings rose nearly a third to almost 400 last year, the most deadly year since records began in 1997, according to UN data. Then in January, US President Donald Trump returned to power and slashed US foreign aid, sparking global humanitarian chaos.

“It has been a really rough year,” Fletcher told Reuters in an interview on Thursday, adding the UN should show world leaders how it can save lives and work to end conflicts.
“We reckon that the support is out there. I don’t think there is less support for kindness, compassion, global solidarity than there was just because of the results of a few elections.”

He remains hopeful that Washington, which was the world’s biggest humanitarian aid donor, could be convinced to restore and continue some funding, “but in the meantime, we can’t wait.”

The Trump administration cut billions of dollars in foreign aid that it believed was not aligned with its “America First” foreign policy. Trump has also said the US pays disproportionately for foreign aid and wants other countries to shoulder more of the burden.

SMALL PRICE
David Miliband, head of the International Rescue Committee aid group, said more than two million people had lost services – such as education in Afghanistan and healthcare for Sudanese refugees – after the US cut more than three-quarters of IRC’s grants and contracts.

“We have a very clear agenda that says to the US government: We can respect your determination to achieve reform. We can respect your determination to achieve value for money. Let’s work together to make sure that for a very small size of American income we’re able to do outsized good in the world,” he told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.

Miliband said Europe was going to step up to help fill the gap left by US cuts, but others needed to do so as well.

“We haven’t seen that yet,” he added.

The annual gathering of world leaders in New York next week will be more important than usual, Miliband said, with China pitting itself at the future of the multilateral system, while the US was taking an America first approach.

“There’s a void to be filled,” Miliband said. “I think that while for Americans, the UN can seem like bureaucracy or traffic jams in New York, for the rest of the world, they’re looking for leadership and that’s what we’re calling for next week.” — Reuters

LONDON – For Keir Starmer, securing record levels of US investment into Britain has validated his offer of an unprecedented second state visit to Donald Trump, a high-risk gamble that was designed to keep the unpredictable president on side.

Trump celebrated his historic visit to Britain by announcing 150 billion pounds ($203 billion) of corporate investment in the UK’s technology, finance and energy sectors.

Public opinion was split over whether Starmer was right to cosy up to Trump, but he managed to avoid any public blow-up and the deals agreed gave him a much needed boost after some of the toughest weeks of his premiership.

While state visits hosted by Britain’s royal family have in the past been used to announce trade deals or cultural partnerships, Trump, the most transactional of presidents, arrived with billionaires and business leaders.

TRUMP WANTS UK ALIGNED WITH US IN AI RACE
During the visit the two governments announced a raft of US corporate investments into Britain, with private equity group Blackstone pledging 100 billion pounds over 10 years and Microsoft making a 22 billion pound commitment.

Trump has said he wants the US to win the global AI race, and with China the only real challenger in the space, Britain has chosen to align with its ally to secure the building of data centers and supercomputers.

Trump and some tech CEOs, including Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, were explicit in their thinking, saying it was important that Britain rely on the United States.

“We’re committed to ensuring that the UK has a secure and reliable supply of the best AI, hardware and software on Earth, and we supply that,” Trump told a news conference.

The investment is intended to help combine US strengths in building AI infrastructure, capabilities and capital with British innovation and creativity coming out of its universities, start-ups and major companies.

But not everyone endorsed the deal, with some analysts and lawyers arguing that it would leave Britain as little more than an outpost of Silicon Valley.

Nick Clegg, a former British deputy prime minister who was later policy chief at Meta, said the deal represented Britain “holding on to Uncle Sam’s coattails”.

Alex Kirkhope, partner at law firm Shoosmiths, agreed, saying if Britain’s AI was built on US infrastructure, software and data centres then “clearly our leverage in terms of the political side of things is naturally compromised.”

Moving too close to the United States also risks limiting Britain’s ability to export into the European Union, by far its biggest trade partner, and key for economic growth.

And critics of Starmer’s approach argue that despite Trump’s apparent sense of goodwill towards Britain – the birthplace of his mother – the country remains at his mercy.

“The UK has made the best of a bad situation but the actual outcome depends on the whims of Trump, not UK tactics or strategy,” said Peter Holmes at the UK Trade Policy Observatory.

STARMER STRIKES SOLID RELATIONSHIP WITH TRUMP
Unlike some other world leaders, Starmer, a liberal technocrat and former human rights lawyer, has proved to be adept at handling Trump, flattering him in public, remaining polite, and using his trump card of a royal invite.

David Dunn, a professor in international politics at the University of Birmingham, said Trump’s willingness to bring senior members of his cabinet and leading corporate bosses to Britain provided huge opportunities.

Other countries, including Brazil and India, had been hit by punishing tariffs because they had not shown enough “fealty”, he said.

“Trump is a mercurial figure who acts like a medieval king,” said Dunn. “Britain through quiet, careful diplomacy has managed to get reasonably favorable treatment.”

Britain was the first country to secure a reduction of Trump’s global tariffs when the two countries announced an economic deal in May. Lower levies on cars and aircraft parts were vital for companies like Jaguar Land Rover.

But Starmer’s influence has its limitations. While the UK’s steel sector faces 25% tariffs to sell into the US, versus 50% for other countries, Starmer did not succeed in bringing them lower during the trip.

The two leaders also agreed to disagree on the recognition of a Palestinian state, and there was little movement on Trump’s approach to Russia.

But the two men left on good terms, with Trump saying the US and Britain would always be united.

“And I just want to thank you, Mr Prime Minister, for the great job I think you’re doing,” he added. — Reuters

The US Supreme Court on Thursday set a date of November 5 for arguments it will hear concerning the legality of Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs in a major test of one of the Republican president’s boldest assertions of executive power that has been central to his economic and trade agenda.

The justices announced on September 9 that they would take up the case after a lower court ruled that Trump had overstepped his authority in imposing most of his tariffs under a federal law meant for emergencies.

That ruling stemmed from challenges brought by small businesses and by 12 US states – Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Vermont – most of them governed by Democrats. The Supreme Court, which begins its next nine-month term on October 6, also agreed to hear at the same time a separate challenge to Trump’s tariffs brought by a family-owned toy company, Learning Resources.

The tariffs are part of a global trade war instigated by Trump since he returned to the presidency in January that has alienated trading partners, increased volatility in financial markets and fueled global economic uncertainty.

Trump has made the levies a key foreign policy tool, using them to renegotiate trade deals, extract concessions and exert political pressure on other countries.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington ruled on August 29 that Trump overreached in invoking a 1977 law known as the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, to impose the tariffs. The tariffs, however, remain in effect during the appeal to the Supreme Court.

Trump in April invoked IEEPA in imposing tariffs on goods imported from individual countries to address trade deficits, as well as separate tariffs announced in February as economic leverage on China, Canada and Mexico to curb the trafficking of fentanyl and illicit drugs into the US.

The law gives the president power to deal with “an unusual and extraordinary threat” amid a national emergency. It historically had been used for imposing sanctions on enemies or freezing their assets. Prior to Trump, the law had never been used to impose tariffs. – Reuters