US Singles Out Korea Over Network Usage Fee Policy: "Korea Is the Only One in the World"

Listing 'Foreign Trade Barriers' on X

Citing 10 Countries Including Europe, Australia, and Japan

On April 27 (local time), the Donald Trump administration in the United States once again expressed dissatisfaction with South Korea's network usage fee policy.

Jamieson Greer, United States Trade Representative (USTR). Photo by AP Yonhap News

The United States Trade Representative (USTR) posted on X (formerly Twitter) that "No country in the world imposes a network usage fee on its domestic internet service providers for transmitting internet traffic. Except for Korea."

On this day, the USTR publicly criticized a total of 10 countries, including Costa Rica, Türkiye, Colombia, Japan, the Dominican Republic, Nigeria, Australia, Brazil, and the European Union (EU), as well as Korea, as examples of what it called 'bizarre foreign trade barriers' faced by U.S. exporters.

Jameson Greer, Representative of the USTR, launched an investigation last month under Section 301 of the U.S. Trade Act regarding overproduction and forced labor, and cited the digital services tax, pharmaceutical pricing, and rice market access as additional areas for possible investigation. In the United States, where Big Tech companies wield significant influence, digital issues are considered especially sensitive.

Furthermore, in the '2026 National Trade Estimate Report (NTE Report)' published on March 31, the USTR once again pointed out the Korean government's digital platform regulation bills, restrictions on overseas transfer of location-based data, and the network usage fee policy as 'non-tariff barriers'—frequent complaints raised by U.S. Big Tech companies.

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