Rep. Adrian Smith (R-NE) speaks throughout a listening to on the commerce subcommittee of the Home Methods and Means Committee on the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 13. Captured from Methods and Means Committee YouTube account
WASHINGTON — A U.S. lawmaker claimed Tuesday that South Korean regulators seem like “aggressively” concentrating on Coupang Inc., a U.S.-listed agency, by means of “discriminatory” actions, because the e-commerce big is underneath intense scrutiny in Seoul over an enormous buyer knowledge leak.
Rep. Adrian Smith (R-NE), chair of the commerce subcommittee of the Home Methods and Means Committee, made the declare throughout a listening to, as Korean Commerce Minister Yeo Han-koo was in Washington to deal with rising U.S. issues over South Korea’s regulatory efforts over on-line platform corporations and the Coupang case.
“Korean regulators already appear to be aggressively concentrating on U.S. expertise leaders,” he mentioned. “One instance could be Coupang by means of discriminatory regulatory actions.”
Smith identified final yr’s joint truth sheet on commerce and safety agreements between Seoul and Washington, which included a shared dedication to making sure that U.S. corporations should not discriminated towards and don’t face pointless limitations from legal guidelines and insurance policies regarding digital companies.
“Sadly, it is my remark that Korea continues to pursue legislative efforts explicitly concentrating on U.S. corporations,” he mentioned.
Throughout the listening to, Rep. Carol Miller (R-WV) argued that South Korea and different international locations proceed makes an attempt to “stifle the free move of digital commerce.”
“That is most obvious in South Korea, the place the Nationwide Meeting continues to advance laws that targets U.S. corporations, together with a lately handed censorship invoice, and lately launched a political witch hunt towards two American executives,” she mentioned.
Rep. Carol Miller (R-WV) speaks throughout a listening to on the commerce subcommittee of the Home Methods and Means Committee on the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 13. Captured from Methods and Means Committee YouTube account
She was apparently referring to the lately handed revision to the Info and Communications Community Act aimed toward tackling false and fabricated on-line data, and high officers of Coupang.
Additionally attending the listening to was Nigel Cory, director of Crowell International Advisors, a public coverage agency, who outlined a set of points going through U.S. companies working in South Korea.
“In essence, what U.S. corporations have discovered is that they have been constantly, aggressively focused by Korean competitors authorities, and that the Korean system lacks due course of and procedural safeguards to make sure that they’re handled pretty throughout the course of those investigations,” he mentioned.
U.S. lawmakers and different figures have expressed issues over Korea’s regulatory strikes concerning on-line tech corporations, in addition to its actions to deal with Coupang’s knowledge leak incident.
In a social media publish on Monday, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) warned that there are “penalties” for state-sponsored “hostile actions” towards American corporations. His message got here hours after he met with the Korean commerce minister.
Issa mentioned that throughout the assembly with Yeo, he made clear that the “unjustified concentrating on of American expertise corporations and unfair therapy of Coupang by the Lee administration weren’t acceptable, particularly from a buddy of 70 years.”
Additionally on Monday, Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI) mentioned that he was “appalled” on the Korean authorities’s actions calling for prison fees towards U.S. executives of Coupang, arguing that the transfer is predicated on a “politically motivated witch hunt.”
