In the wake of the high-profile Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid on Georgia’s prized Hyundai factory near Savannah, Gov. Brian Kemp is set to visit South Korea on an economic mission.
Mr. Kemp was planning the trip to Asia before the agency’s crackdown on the site swept up nearly 500 people, including some 300 Korean nationals.
“This travel, as with any economic development mission, was scheduled well before the events of Sept. 4, with the logistics required to organize such a mission taking months to finalize,” Kemp spokesman Carter Chapman told Global Atlanta.
The governor is also slated to attend the 47th annual Southeast U.S.-Japan Association joint meeting in Tokyo, a gathering that alternates between Japan and six southern states. Savannah hosted in 2019. Mr. Kemp didn’t attend in 2023, the first time it was held in Tokyo again after the pandemic.
Estimates vary, but between the two countries, Georgia plays host to, on the conservative side, 400-plus companies responsible for more than 50,000 jobs. While Georgia isn’t home to any Japanese auto assembly plants, suppliers have landed in the state to serve factories elsewhere in the region. Korea, meanwhile, has poured billions of dollars into the state, including the Kia Motors factory in West Point launched in 2009 and the Hyundai Metaplant that started production last year. Georgia has had economic and trade offices in Japan and Korea for 51 years and 40 years, respectively.
Accompanied by First Lady Marty Kemp, this will be Mr. Kemp’s “third visit to the Republic of Korea, one of Georgia’s largest economic development partners, and further reinforces the strong economic ties between our state and economic partners from this nation,” Mr. Chapman said.
Korea hosted Mr. Kemp’s first international mission in 2019. At the time, SK Battery was setting up a $2.6 billion plant in Commerce, Ga., a record investment that opened the floodgates for further mega projects that Mr. Kemp and other Georgia boosters have attributed to the state’s strong business climate. On his second trip, Mr. Kemp met with then-President Yoon Suk-yeol.
After the raid, fears grew that companies would rethink such investments, though Hyundai last week said it would put $2.7 billion more in the plant, emphasizing its partnership with the state despite the bad press stemming from the federal enforcement action.
Homeland Security said those detained, who later flew home on a charter jet, were here on the wrong status or visa overstays; others, including Hyundai officials, said many were engineers in the process of setting up a plant that will employ Georgians.
Whatever their status, the shackling of Korean workers played out across television screens and newspapers in Asia, forcing delays of Korean projects and leading to questions about whether foreign investors, which President Donald Trump has pressured into the U.S. using tariffs, are truly welcome here.
Mr. Kemp has straddled the line between supporting the Trump administration’s tough immigration stance and reassuring Korean companies investing billions and creating thousands of jobs in the state.
Korea trade experts have recommended a blend of vocal public messages and personal outreach in closed-door meetings.
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