Korea Pressing Hard on EV Tax Credits
U. S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said that when she met with Korea’s Minister for Trade Ahn Dukgeun, he told her his country's concerns about the electric vehicle provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act. "They ... highlighted the importance of meaningful action on clean energy technologies to combat the climate crisis while addressing supply chain and security vulnerabilities," she said in a readout of the Sept. 7 meeting.
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She said they also discussed the upcoming Indo-Pacific Economic Framework ministerial meeting in Los Angeles, and that they both want a stronger partnership with "respect to challenges related to supply chains, efforts to support environmental protection, and ways to strengthen our cooperation in regional and multilateral fora including APEC and the G-20."
Tai said she'd like Korea to cooperate with the U.S. to support "internationally-recognized worker rights."
A few days ago, nine members of the House visited Korea and spoke with Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Lee Chang-yan, Korea said, and he told them that while he agrees with the IRA's efforts to expand clean energy and respond to climate change, "its discriminatory elements favoring U.S.-made electric vehicles (EVs) over imported EVs and granting tax benefits to the former are a source of serious concern to the Korean government and related industries, stressing that the two countries must promptly settle the matter."
He said the law could violate the Korean-U.S. Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization rules, and that discriminating against Korean-built EVs "comes at a time when the two countries are seeing substantial advancements in high-tech supply chain and technology cooperation, potentially dampening prospects for Korea-U.S. economic cooperation."
He called for more action from Congress. Nine of the members on the trip were Republicans, who uniformly opposed the IRA.