US ramps up pressure on Korea ahead of reciprocal tariffs

Korea's Trade Minister Cheong In-kyo, right, shakes hands with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in Washington, March 14. Courtesy of Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy

Korea will hold additional negotiations with the United States to ease intensifying trade pressure on a range of issues, including domestic regulations on online platform firms, beef imports and network usage fees, officials from multiple government authorities said Tuesday.

The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) cited these items as major nontariff barriers to trade, urging Korea to amend relevant regulations that "distort or undermine fair competition," according to the 2025 National Trade Estimate Report it released on Monday (local time).

This has heightened trade uncertainties in Korea, as the report comes at a critical juncture, with U.S. President Donald Trump expected to announce reciprocal tariffs soon. Trump has reaffirmed his plan to unveil details on each country’s reciprocal tariffs on April 2.

Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said it will engage in working-level talks with its U.S. counterpart and discuss details via a joint committee meeting under the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement.

“The trade ministry will conduct an in-depth analysis of the issues raised by the report, and come up with countermeasures,” an official from the ministry said. “We will also garner our efforts to make our position reflected to the U.S. authority on a string of pending issues regarding the upcoming reciprocal tariffs.”

U.S. President Donald Trump holds up a signed executive order as children hold up copies of the executive order they signed at an education event in the East Room of the White House in Washington, March 20. AP-Yonhap

According to the report, the U.S. took issue with Korea’s competition policy in the digital sector. Korea’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC) is pushing for a law revision to regulate influential online platform firms. The revision aims to prevent market-dominant platforms from engaging in anti-competitive practices and abusing their dominant position.

This, however, sparked a strong backlash from the U.S., as a group of U.S. firms — such as Google and YouTube — may face sanctions from the revision.

The USTR argued that this is unfair, as “a number of major Korean companies as well as companies from other countries” will be excluded from the regulation, according to the report.

In response, the Korean antitrust watchdog said it will respond to the issue by negotiating with other government bodies.

“The FTC will join hands with the trade ministry and deal with the issue appropriately, so it does not escalate into a trade conflict between the two countries,” an official from the FTC said.

Other complaints from the report included Korea’s regulatory push to require foreign content providers to pay network usage fees to Korean internet service providers (ISPs).

“Because some Korean ISPs are also themselves content providers, fees paid by U.S. content providers could benefit a Korean competitor,” the report said.

In Korea, three companies — SK Broadband, KT and LG Uplus — are doing business as both ISPs and content providers.

“Such a mandate could be anticompetitive by further strengthening Korea’s ISP oligopoly of three major providers to the detriment of the content industry,” the report said.

Korea’s regulations on U.S. beef imports also sparked complaints from the USTR. In 2008, Korea and the U.S. agreed to reopen Korea’s market to U.S. beef and beef products, but the USTR took issue with Korea’s "transitional measure," which allows beef imports only from animals under 30 months old.

The U.S. trade authority also raised concerns about Korea’s prohibition on imports of processed U.S. beef products, including ground beef patties, beef jerky and sausage.

Korea’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said it does not have any immediate action plans against the complaint.

“The complaint has long been raised by the U.S., and for now, the U.S. government has not asked for any official negotiation with us on the agenda,” an official from the authority said.

“We will continue to hold talks with experts and officials in the industry, and deal with the issue by prioritizing the national interest.”