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Republican lawmakers call out Seoul for 'discrimination' against Coupang, other U.S. firms

Published: 22 Apr. 2026, 18:38

CHO YONG-JUN
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Rep. Michael Baumgartner, Republican of Washington, questions former U.S. Justice Department special counsel, Jack Smith, before the House Judiciary Committee at the Capitol in Washington on Jan. 22. [AP/YONHAP]

Republican lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives publicly called out the Korean government for "discriminatory" actions targeting U.S. companies operating in Korea in an official letter to the Korean embassy.

The demand came in a letter to the Korean ambassador to the United States, Kang Kyung-wha, signed by 54 House Republicans affiliated with the Republican Study Committee, one of the largest informal policy groups within the party, and led by Rep. Michael Baumgartner of Washington. The letter marked the latest escalation in a series of Republican complaints over Korean regulatory actions affecting U.S. technology and e-commerce companies, particularly Coupang, which is headquartered in the United States while predominantly operating in Korea.

“We are deeply concerned by the ROK government’s targeted and discriminatory actions against U.S. companies,” the lawmakers wrote, referring to Korea by the initialism for its official name, Republic of Korea. “Many American tech companies have faced a range of regulatory actions that seek to punish them while shielding Korean domestic competition.”

They went on to argue that U.S. technology companies were being penalized while Korean companies were being protected, warning that the trend raised rule-of-law concerns and risked becoming disguised protectionism.

The lawmakers also claimed that the regulatory actions "will cost $1 trillion in combined economic damage to the U.S. and Korean economies over the next 10 years, with the U.S. economy losing $525 billion and American households losing nearly $4,000 each."

Complaints had been lodged beforehand regarding Coupang. At a Jan. 13 hearing of the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee, Rep. Adrian Smith, Republican of Nebraska and chairman of the subcommittee, said Korea was advancing legislation that clearly targeted U.S. companies.

Coupang CEO Harold Rogers takes part in the ecommerce company's dawn delivery from the evening of March 19 to the next morning, as part of his promise to take a closer look at the working conditions of the company's delivery workers. [COUPANG]

Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee on Jan. 27 criticized what they described as the unfair targeting of U.S. companies such as Coupang. The committee continued by launching an inquiry in February, requesting materials from Coupang to examine whether Korean regulations were being enforced in a discriminatory way against U.S. technology firms.

The Republican campaign has since intensified through hearings and investigations. In the latest letter, the lawmakers said U.S. companies including Apple, Google, Meta and Coupang were being "systematically targeted."

They placed particular emphasis on Coupang, calling it the "largest source of U.S. foreign direct investment into Korea over the past decade" and saying it now "sells many billions of dollars in U.S. goods and agricultural products to Korean customers each year."

"Unfortunately, [Korea] recently leveraged a low-sensitivity data leak in November 2025 as a pretext to launch a whole-of-government assault on Coupang," the letter said, referring to the data leak that put personal information of 33.8 million users — almost the entirety of Coupang's user base — in danger.

They also warned that if U.S. companies were pushed out of Korea’s online retail market, Chinese platforms such as "Temu, Alibaba and Shein" would quickly fill the gap.

"These Chinese companies are beholden to the Chinese Communist Party, and their dominance in the region would have unacceptable security consequences."

“[Korea] is a critical ally, and we expect them to hold up their end of the partnership,” Rep. August Pfluger, Republican of Texas and chairman of the Republican Study Committee, said. “Discriminatory actions against American companies undermine our economic relationship and risk ceding ground to China. [Korea] made commitments. It’s time to honor them.”

The lawmakers also stressed that the United States does not subject Korean companies to the "kind of politically motivated attacks they said American firms have faced” from the Korean government.

"We ask your government to end its targeted assault of American companies immediately," the letter said.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY HAN JEE-HYE [[email protected]]