"Foreign Officials Who Discriminate Against U.S. Companies Must Be Barred From Entry"

A member of the U.S. House of Representatives from the ruling Republican Party has introduced a bill that would ban foreign officials who discriminate against U.S. companies from entering the country, citing a dispute involving Coupang in South Korea.
The local U.S. media outlet Seattle Red reported on the 27th local time that Rep. Michael Baumgartner, a Republican from Washington State, had introduced the bill. Before the report, Baumgartner had already posted a press release on his website on the 23rd, saying he had submitted the measure to the House of Representatives. Because the House is in its summer recess, the bill will be taken up after September.
The core of the bill is to include foreign officials who lead regulations such as discriminatory investigations of U.S. companies, or the imposition of fines or taxes, among those subject to entry bans and deportation from the United States. In a press release, he argued that "around the world, there is a troubling pattern of foreign governments targeting U.S.-owned companies with selective investigations, punitive fines, discriminatory taxes and regulatory burdens."
He cited the Korea Fair Trade Commission's regulation of Coupang as an example. Baumgartner claimed that "Korean authorities conducted dozens of investigations into the U.S.-based company Coupang, demanded thousands of document submissions, and then imposed the largest fine in history."