Home > National > Diplomacy

USTR highlights Korea's network usage fee among 'craziest trade barriers'

Published: 28 Apr. 2026, 11:30

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer speaks during a tour of Atomic Industries' manufacturing facility in Warren, Michigan, on April 9. [AP/YONHAP]

The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has raised objections to Korea's network usage fee policy, calling it one of the "craziest foreign trade barriers" for Washington.

“No country in the world imposes a network usage fees on the transmission of Internet traffic to its Internet service providers [ISPs]. Except Korea,” the office said in an X post on the USTR official account.

The USTR also listed the issue in its annual National Trade Estimate report released on March 31, classifying network usage fees as a services barrier alongside proposed platform regulations, restrictions on the export of location-based data — namely for Google Maps — and complex certification and security requirements related to payment services.

Washington has repeatedly cited network usage fees — a fee collected from ISPs for using its network — as a major nontariff trade barrier.

Bills introduced in Korea's National Assembly since 2021 would require foreign content providers to pay network usage fees to Korean internet service providers, the agency said in the Korea section of the report, adding that the United States raised the issue with Korea several times throughout 2025.

Korean telecom operators, including SK Telecom and KT, have consistently argued that a network usage fee is needed to ensure fair treatment between domestic and foreign companies.

The argument is that U.S. tech companies such as Netflix and YouTube are not bearing a fair share of the costs, even as surging traffic generates massive expenses.

An X post from the United States Trade Representative on April 27. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

The USTR, by contrast, argues that such a requirement could be anticompetitive and could strengthen the oligopoly of Korea's three internet service providers, referring to KT, LG U+ and SK Telecom.

U.S. tech companies say users already pay internet access fees to telecom operators, making any additional charge a form of double-billing.

The USTR post on Sunday targeting Korea was just one of the 10 thread posts that named the “craziest” foreign trade barriers facing U.S. exporters.

“You wouldn’t believe the lengths some countries go to stop American exports!” the thread said, before naming the 10 barriers.

Korea's network usage fee policy was introduced as the fourth item on the list, alongside other barriers the USTR has flagged — including Turkey's ban on U.S. rice imports, Nigeria's ban on U.S. beef imports and Australia's regulations on video streaming companies.

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 KANG TAE-HWA [[email protected]]