{"id":692,"date":"2026-06-04T13:05:51","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T13:05:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=692"},"modified":"2026-06-04T13:05:51","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T13:05:51","slug":"us-congressman-defends-coupang-again-rubio-flags-trade-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=692","title":{"rendered":"US congressman defends Coupang again; Rubio flags trade talks"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='booster-block booster-read-block'>\n                <div class=\"twp-read-time\">\n                \t<i class=\"booster-icon twp-clock\"><\/i> <span>Read Time:<\/span>1 Minute, 29 Second                <\/div>\n\n            <\/div><p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-article-content=\"true\" data-testid=\"article-editor-content\">\n<div class=\"editor-img-box\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; clear: both; margin-bottom: 24px;margin-bottom: 30px;; width: 728px\"><picture><img src=\"https:\/\/newsimg.koreatimes.co.kr\/2026\/06\/04\/0a3bde61-4993-4848-97af-a8728e5f0ad7.jpg?w=728\" style=\"height: auto; aspect-ratio: 1920 \/ 1280; width: 100%\" alt=\"The flags of Korea, the United States and Coupang hang at New York Stock Exchange, March 11, 2021, when Coupang Inc., the U.S.-headquartered holding firm of Coupang, began its trading. Yonhap\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/picture>\n<div class=\"caption\">\n<p>The flags of Korea, the United States and Coupang hang at New York Stock Exchange, March 11, 2021, when Coupang Inc., the U.S.-headquartered holding firm of Coupang, began its trading. Yonhap<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">SEATTLE \u2014 U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said concerns over Korea&#8217;s treatment of American companies have affected Washington&#8217;s ability to conclude a trade agreement with Seoul, responding to criticism from Rep. Darrell Issa during a congressional hearing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">During the hearing Wednesday, Issa argued that Korea&#8217;s democracy had &#8220;taken a strong bent to the left,&#8221; accusing the country of opening more avenues toward China and &#8220;beginning to oppress&#8221; companies, including Meta and Coupang.<\/p>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">Responding to Issa, Rubio said concerns about the treatment of U.S. firms had become part of Washington&#8217;s engagement with Seoul.<\/p>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">&#8220;Our companies aren&#8217;t just facing challenges and getting targeted in South Korea. They&#8217;re facing it throughout Europe,&#8221; Rubio said. &#8220;I think this becomes a feature in our engagement with South Korea even if we have things we are strategically aligned on.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">&#8220;Frankly, [it has] impacted our ability to conclude a trade agreement with them because of some of their behavior toward American companies,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">The comments mark the latest instance of Issa criticizing  Korea, while defending Coupang.<\/p>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">Earlier this year, Issa joined dozens of House Republicans in raising concerns about what they described as discriminatory treatment of U.S. firms in Korea. He has also publicly urged Korean officials to avoid policies that he argued unfairly target companies, such as Coupang, Meta, Google and Apple.<\/p>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">The latest exchange suggests concerns over the treatment of technology and platform companies remain part of broader U.S.-Korea economic discussions, even as the two countries continue to cooperate closely on security and other strategic issues.<\/p>\n<p><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"ktViewTypeBody\" value=\"NORMAL\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.koreatimes.co.kr\/world\/20260604\/us-congressman-defends-coupang-again-rubio-flags-trade-talks?utm_source=rss\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n        <div class=\"booster-block booster-reactions-block\">\n            <div class=\"twp-reactions-icons\">\n                \n                <div class=\"twp-reacts-wrap\">\n                    <a react-data=\"be-react-1\" post-id=\"692\" class=\"be-face-icons un-reacted\" 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Yonhap SEATTLE \u2014 U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said concerns over Korea&#8217;s treatment of American companies have affected Washington&#8217;s ability to conclude a trade&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":695,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,11],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-692","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-world-news"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}