Ju Biung-ghi, chairman of the Korea Fair Trade Commission, flew to New York recently for Fordham’s annual conference on international antitrust law and policy. Per Korean press reports, the purpose of the visit was to explain his government’s position as to how it treats American companies and to defuse a growing dispute with Washington.
He didn’t succeed. In fact, if the U.S. Congress has its way, it will be his last trip to the United States for a while.
While Ju was here, the House Judiciary Committee began consideration of a bill that would bar or deport foreign officials who use government power to discriminate against U.S. companies. Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) pointed to the KFTC — and Ju personally — as a specific example of what the legislation was targeting.
Jordan also referenced Coupang, the American-owned retailer that Korea’s privacy regulator hit with a record penalty of roughly $409 million last June. Most of that penalty was tied to a data breach the company says left the attacker holding data from only about 3,000 accounts, and the data was fully recovered with no consumer harm.
The committee’s July report on Korean discrimination toward U.S. companies makes clear this concern goes beyond just one company, detailing more than two decades of disproportionate enforcement toward American firms, including Google, Apple, and Qualcomm.
Korea’s mistreatment of American firms has been so egregious that it has managed to actually unite both Democrats and Republicans.
Indeed, in commenting on the Republican bill in a Republican-controlled Congress, Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-WA) told a Ways and Means hearing in January that Korean treatment of companies in her home state violated the terms of the KORUS trade deal. And Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) wrote to Korea’s ambassador in February, citing grave concern specifically over the treatment of Coupang.
And a recent survey, conducted by Penta Group for the U.S.-Asia Fair Market Alliance, found that 78% of U.S. voters would be more likely to support policymakers who defend U.S. businesses overseas, including 72% of Democrats and 87% of Republicans.
The Koreans should not be surprised, as they have simply chosen to ignore what the U.S. has been trying to tell them.
Last December, for example, a U.S.-Korea trade committee meeting was delayed amid Washington’s complaints about Seoul’s digital proposals, and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) used a House hearing to display one of Ju’s past columns, saying it disparaged America.
In March, the U.S. Trade Representative’s 2026 National Trade Estimate flagged Korea’s platform regulation, network usage fees, and data localization rules as barriers facing American firms.
In April, 54 members of Congress wrote to Korea’s ambassador asking Seoul to stop targeting U.S. businesses.
In a November 2025 joint fact sheet, Korea committed that American companies would not face discrimination or unnecessary barriers concerning digital services, including in platform regulation.
But Ju has said that he nonetheless backs an Online Platform Fairness Act, which provides for, among other things, surcharges on American companies of up to 10% of relevant sales under broadly framed “unfairness” standards. In fact, the day before Ju left his New York trip, ruling-party lawmakers and small-business groups urged the National Assembly to take up the bill sooner rather than later.
More recently, the KFTC and its allies in the Korean National Assembly have been pushing for a Delivery App Fee Cap bill that would similarly target U.S. platforms through arbitrary ex-ante thresholds and impose government-mandated price control fees.
After he returned from New York, Ju vowed he “would not be swayed” by pressure from U.S. lawmakers to halt the KFTC’s aggressive behavior against American companies.
So what does Washington do from here?
Several tools are already on the table. USTR has precedent: in 2019, it invoked the trade agreement’s competition consultations for the first time ever over KFTC hearings that denied American parties access to the evidence against them. USTR has also said it plans to conduct investigations into discrimination against American technology firms under Section 301.
And both the FTC and the Justice Department sit alongside the KFTC in the International Competition Network’s framework on agency procedures, which gives one authority a formal way to put another’s due-process record on the table. Korea has committed to that forum. Washington should use it.
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The tariff relief Korea received under the trade deal also gives the White House leverage to condition full implementation on reciprocal treatment. In Korea’s case, this includes implementing the range of commitments outlined in the joint fact sheet, including on nontariff barriers, not just investments in the U.S. that Korea is reportedly preparing to announce.
Ju came to New York to explain his government’s position. He left with a clearer picture of Washington’s. Whether he — or other Korean leaders — will be permitted to make another visit to the U.S. may ultimately depend on decisions now being made in Seoul.
Joe Cunningham is a former Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives, who served South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District from 2019 to 2021.