Republican Lawmakers Urge End to Discrimination Against U.S. Companies Like Coupang

Letter Sent to Ambassador Kang Kyung-wha in Washington

Fifty-four Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives have called for an end to discriminatory regulations against American companies operating in South Korea.

A view of a Coupang center in Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

According to Yonhap News, the Republican Study Committee (RSC) announced in a press release on April 21 (local time) that, led by Representative Michael Baumgartner, a letter containing these concerns was sent to South Korean Ambassador to the United States Kang Kyung-wha.

They stated, "The South Korean government is taking discriminatory and politically motivated actions targeting American businesses," adding, "It is particularly concerning that companies such as Apple, Google, Meta, and Coupang are being systematically singled out."

The lawmakers also argued, "The Korea-U.S. trade agreement includes a provision in which the South Korean government pledged not to discriminate against or disadvantage American companies. However, the South Korean government is disregarding this commitment and continuing to disadvantage U.S. firms, which is unacceptable."

Regarding Coupang in particular, they noted, "Over the past decade, Coupang has been the largest source of U.S. foreign direct investment (FDI) in Korea and currently sells billions of dollars' worth of U.S.-made goods and agricultural products to Korean consumers each year."

They continued, "Unfortunately, the South Korean government has launched a whole-of-government attack against Coupang under the pretext of a low-sensitivity information leak incident." They cited the consideration of suspending Coupang's business operations, a raid on its Seoul office, punitive fines, and tax investigations as examples.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.