Washington, D.C. – The Computer & Communications Industry Association noted with great interest details of ongoing efforts to address trade concerns with Korea, as laid out in the Joint Fact Sheet issued by the White House on November 13. Commitments related to reciprocal trade are expected to be memorialized in a bilateral agreement to be finalized by the end of the year. If fully implemented, such commitments could contribute significantly to reducing trade irritants and putting U.S.-Korea trade relations on a more sustainable, mutually-beneficial foundation.
CCIA looks forward to further details on how these commitments relating to digital trade will be implemented to address long-standing concerns, including network usage fees, discriminatory and burdensome bills that would impose online platform regulations, restrictions on the cross-border transfer of data (including map data), and procedural fairness in competition proceedings. These are all among the key issues for U.S. digital services exporters, and the Administration should be commended for continuing to make them a priority.
CCIA expects that implementation will require specific action by the Government of Korea and looks forward to their completion, ideally before the agreement is finalized. Specifically, this will require:
- Amendments to the Korea Communications Commission’s (KCC) regulations setting rates for the exchange of internet traffic between internet service providers (ISPs);
- Abandonment of two proposed bills that would institute prescriptive platform regulation targeting U.S. firms;
- Approval of the export of detailed map data (recently again delayed); and
- Reform of procedures governing competition proceedings to provide more fairness, including recognition of attorney-client privilege.
The following can be attributed to CCIA Vice President of Digital Trade, Jonathan McHale:
“CCIA welcomes the U.S. Administration’s perseverance and the willingness of Korea to recognize and address long-standing trade barriers that have impeded market access to the Korean market for U.S. digital service suppliers. Implementation, however, will be key, and concrete actions over the next month will be critical to ensuring that these commitments are addressed in a sustained, commercially meaningful manner.”
