Trade Minister furthers bilateral cooperation in strategic industries amid trade tensions South Korean Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo (right) shakes hands with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer at the USTR office in Washington on Tuesday. (Yonhap) South Korea's top trade negotiator traveled to Washington last week to ease US concerns over alleged discrimination against Coupang, the US-listed e-commerce giant at the center of a trade flashpoint between the two allies.According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resource on Sunday, Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo met with 10 senators and representatives — including Sen. Bill Hagerty and Rep. Adrian Smith — from Tuesday to Friday to clarify that Korea's digital laws and policies are not biased against US companies.Chief among them is Coupang, which was hit with a record fine of more than $400 million for a data breach affecting more than 37 million customers.The trip follows months of friction, as American officials and members of Congress have raised questions about Korea's handling of the breach. The House Judiciary Committee escalated the dispute earlier in July with a report accusing Seoul of discriminating against American-owned businesses, including what it called a "harassment campaign" against Coupang.Alongside Yeo's visit, South Korea's embassy in Washington sent the committee a statement Thursday rebutting the report with Korea's regulatory principles, its nondiscriminatory digital framework, as well as the legality of the government's actions."The Korean government will work to keep the Coupang situation from burdening bilateral relations, while continuing to engage the Judiciary Committee and Washington's political establishment to counter Coupang's mischaracterizations," the foreign ministry said.Yeo also framed Korea as an indispensable partner in semiconductors, shipbuilding and energy, urging lawmakers to keep backing deeper cooperation between the two economies. Across the digital, biotech, financial and auto sectors, he met with company officials from Google, Apple, Amazon Web Services, Qualcomm, Eli Lilly, MetLife and General Motors to discuss Korea's policy direction and industrial cooperation."Korea and the United States have enormous potential for cooperation in strategic industries, and each is an essential partner to the other," Yeo said, adding that Seoul would work to prevent tariff and non-tariff issues from spilling over into the broader economic relationship.Yeo met with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Tuesday to review the progress of the Section 301 investigation, stressing the need for the recent Korea-US tariff agreement to remain balanced for both sides. However, Washington imposed a new 12.5 percent forced-labor tariff under Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act two days later.In response, Korea asked the US to honor last year's tariff agreement, which capped tariffs on Korean goods at 15 percent. The Trade Ministry said Washington reaffirmed its commitment to the existing trade agreement.