Reuters reported on the 21st (local time) that Coupang's U.S. investors asked the U.S. government to investigate and impose trade sanctions over what they called discriminatory treatment by the Korean government.
According to Reuters, Coupang's U.S. investors GreenOaks and Altimeter asked the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to investigate and to impose trade measures, including tariff and other sanctions, saying "the Korean government is mounting an offensive through discriminatory actions against Coupang."
They said, according to Reuters, that "the Korean government has waged an all-out campaign at the government level—covering labor, finance, and tariff—to paralyze Coupang's business, and these investigations have little to do with the data leak incident."
Jamieson Greer of the USTR is said to have conveyed concerns in a recent meeting with Yeo Han-koo, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources, who visited the United States, asking whether "the Korean government is effectively trying to bankrupt Coupang." Yeo explained that the relevant agencies are conducting a thorough investigation in accordance with the relevant laws and said it is inappropriate to overinterpret this as a diplomatic or trade issue between the United States and Korea.