The United States Trade Representative (USTR) has once again criticized the bills related to network usage fees pending in the Korean National Assembly this year as 'anti-competitive,' following similar reports last year and the year before.
In the '2024 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers (NTE)' released on the 29th of last month (local time), the USTR stated in the section concerning Korea, "Since 2021, numerous bills have been proposed requiring foreign content providers to pay network usage fees to Korean Internet Service Providers (ISPs)."
The USTR explained, "Some Korean ISPs are themselves content providers, so the network usage fees paid by U.S. content providers could benefit Korean competitors. Furthermore, these measures could be anti-competitive by harming Korea's content industry and reinforcing the oligopoly of Korea's three major ISP operators (KT, SK Broadband, LG Uplus)."
The USTR also noted that it raised concerns about this issue with Korea multiple times last year.
Network usage fees are costs paid by content providers (CPs) such as streaming content or online games when distributing content through an ISP's network. ISPs argue that since subscribers use the internet network to access CP services, CPs should pay network usage fees.
Within Korea's telecommunications industry and political circles, there is a growing call to mandate payment of network usage fees by foreign CPs. In the past, there was a sharp conflict between SK Broadband, an ISP, and Netflix, a CP, which escalated into litigation. Seven bills related to network usage fees have been proposed in the National Assembly but have not been processed.
The USTR also expressed concerns about network usage fee legislation in Korea in its 2022 and 2021 trade barrier reports.
Additionally, it cited expanding market access for U.S. blueberries, improving the cherry import program, and enhancing market access for apples, pears, Texas grapefruit, and California stone fruits as ongoing issues.
The USTR stated, "Some market access requests remain under consultation with Korea's Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency," and added, "The United States has requested that Korea's Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency expedite its approval procedures."
This year's trade barrier report is 18% shorter than last year's (466 pages reduced to 394 pages). The section related to Korea also shrank from 8 pages last year to 6 pages this year.
USTR Katherine Tai, in the preface to this year's trade barrier report, stated, "Each trading partner has sovereign rights to adopt measures to promote legitimate public objectives," a statement not included in last year's report.
The Hill, a U.S. political news outlet, analyzed that not only has the page count decreased, but the report also includes content that could be interpreted as recognizing the international legal basis for trade barrier measures by various countries, while reducing criticisms of trade barriers.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, in a statement, warned that "there is a risk of giving a green light to foreign governments to raise trade barriers against the United States."
The U.S. Computer & Communications Industry Association stated, "In the past, the USTR identified regulations such as Europe's Digital Markets Act and AI Act, and data localization requirements in Indonesia and Vietnam as trade barriers, but this year it either did not raise these issues or significantly reduced the number of criticisms compared to last year."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
