Baseball cap

A specially made red baseball cap unexpectedly became a key "diplomatic weapon" in the U.S.-South Korea trade negotiations. According to reports from South Korean media such as JoongAng Ilbo and Chosun Ilbo on August 4th, when South Korean officials traveled to Washington for important trade talks this summer, they brought not only negotiation briefings but also a carefully designed red baseball cap with the slogan "MASGA (Make American Shipbuilding Great Again)". This cap, conceived by South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, aims to promote large-scale investments by South Korean shipbuilding enterprises in the U.S. mainland, with financial support from public financial institutions such as the Export-Import Bank of Korea.



The cap features a unique design. Sewn in Seoul, the cap is embroidered with the national flags of South Korea and the United States, and the words "Make American Shipbuilding Great Again" are stitched in white thread. Its design was inspired by employees in South Korea's shipbuilding industry, with a shape and color mimicking the red golf caps favored by Trump, and optimized with the help of ChatGPT. To present it during the negotiations, the South Korean team urgently found a manufacturer in Seoul's Dongdaemun District to rush-produce it. On July 24th, the South Korean trade negotiation team, holding a display board introducing the MASGA project, and Minister Kim Jung-kwan, wearing this custom cap, met with U.S. Commerce Secretary Raimondo. Raimondo highly praised the plan, calling it a "great idea" and expressing strong support. On August 3rd, Kim Yong-bum, the policy chief of the South Korean presidential office, showed the cap on a KBS TV program, revealing that 10 caps were designed and brought to the U.S. to fully build this symbolic symbol. The U.S. and South Korea finally reached an agreement on a 15% tariff rate for South Korean products exported to the U.S., and this cap played an indispensable role.