Lee Jae Myung is licensed under Creative Commons.
On July 28th, Americans for Tax Reform organized a coalition of 11 organizations in a letter thanking President Trump for his actions against discriminatory foreign digital trade policies and encouraging him to continue defending market access in his trade negotiations with the Republic of Korea.
The coalition letter reiterated the need to address discrimination against American tech companies, calling for greater action against such policies in the Republic of Korea. The ROK, through a series of active policies and proposed laws, has created a regulatory regime that significantly disadvantages American technology firms, in some cases barring them from market entry.
U.S. technology enterprises deserve full, fair, and reciprocal market access to all industry domains in the ROK.
Across the digital landscape, the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) has leveraged its powers to undermine the competitiveness of American firms, while Korean and Chinese firms—who aren’t subjected to the same regulatory scrutiny—are benefiting from less competitive markets.
Strict data localization laws impose unnecessary compliance burdens, increasing the cost of doing business and preventing the free flow of information that drives innovation. For instance, American tech companies are completely barred from offering GPS mapping services. Additional restrictions prevent American cloud service providers from securing public sector contracts.
This America-last regulatory discrimination is on track to worsen. Proposed legislation, endorsed by Korean President Lee Jae-myung, would expand the government’s authority to regulate “online platforms of a certain size.” The arbitrary nature and vague language of these laws leave American companies vulnerable to extortionary overregulation.
This is a critical moment to ensure that Korea directly addresses its history of trade discrimination and future proof the relationship from regulatory threats. Without a strong U.S. response, this abuse of the U.S.-Korea relationship will only continue, undermining the competitiveness and market access of American companies.
This coalition believes that for a truly fair relationship between the U.S. and Korea to exist, Korea’s targeting of American technology firms must end. Such discrimination undermines the competitiveness of American companies and the U.S.-Korea relationship. We hope President Trump’s negotiations address such discrimination, resulting in a free and fair trade relationship with Korea.
Read the full letter here.
