President Donald Trump says that some point his administration will “just set prices” for trade deals with US partners if they don’t come to the table, saying it is “physically impossible” to conduct detailed negotiations will all countries, as a deal with South Korea grows closer.

South Korea and the United States have agreed to craft a trade package aimed at removing new US tariffs before the pause on reciprocal tariffs is lifted in July, Seoul's delegation has said after the first round of trade talks in Washington.

“I can't think of one country that doesn't want to negotiate a deal, and they either negotiate a deal or we set a deal that we think is fair,” Trump says.

Trump has threatened to reimpose his steep ‘reciprocal’ tariffs on nearly all US partners in a manner of months if they don’t negotiate separate deals with his administration. He says at some point officials won’t be able to hold one-on-one talks because only a “very small group” understands the issues.

The US and South Korea had a "very successful" meeting, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.

"We may be moving faster than I thought, and we will be talking technical terms as early as next week," he said.

Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer met with South Korean Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok and Industry Minister Ahn Duk-geun.

Neither side offered details on possible areas of agreement, but South Korea said in a statement it requested exemptions from reciprocal and item-specific U.S. tariffs, and offered cooperation on shipbuilding and energy as well as addressing trade imbalances.

"I think we had a very good start today," Ahn later told reporters.

"During the meeting, the two countries reached a broad agreement on the framework for future discussions," he said. "We also agreed to hold working-level talks next week to determine the scope and structure of talks, with the goal of producing a 'July package' by July 8."

Choi said more talks will be held in South Korea on May 15-16 with Greer.

"Discussions will focus on four key areas: tariffs and non-tariff measures, economic security, investment cooperation, and currency policy," Choi said.

The discussions with South Korea took place as Bessent and other Trump administration trade team members met with a multitude of foreign finance and trade officials looking to strike tariff deals on the sidelines of this week's meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group in Washington.

South Korea, which faces 25 per cent US reciprocal tariffs, is among the first countries the Trump administration has initiated trade talks with, after its first face-to-face discussions last week with Japan, another key Asian ally slapped with 24 per cent tariffs. Bessent was also due to meet Japanese officials on Thursday.

Choi said South Korea focused in particular on the automobile sector, which faces the greatest negative impact.