Photo : The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative
An annual report on foreign trade barriers released by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has listed what it considers to be South Korea’s investment barriers and its electronic commerce and digital trade barriers. The 2025 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers, released Monday, said a number of bills have been introduced in the National Assembly that would require foreign content providers to pay network usage fees to South Korean internet service providers(ISPs). The report said that because some of those ISPs are also content providers, fees paid by U.S. content providers could benefit a South Korean competitor. It added that such a mandate could be anticompetitive, strengthening the ISP oligopoly held by three major providers in South Korea to the detriment of the content industry. The United States raised this issue with South Korea on several occasions throughout 2024.
As investment barriers, the report cited South Korea’s ban on foreign investment in terrestrial broadcasting operations and its limits on foreign ownership of cable and satellite broadcasting services, as well as foreign ownership of enterprises engaged in raising beef cattle and meat wholesaling.