Korea, Cambodia, Kick off Summer CODEL

House Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith (MO-08) led a bipartisan delegation of House members to Seoul, South Korea where they participated in bilateral meetings held by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and other prominent Korean government officials focused on U.S.-Korea economic relations.  

Yonhap News Agency reports Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Lee Chang-yang stressed the need for the United States to draw up detailed guidance on "foreign entities of concern" rules, or FEOC, that excludes battery manufacturers from China and other nations of concern from incentives under the IRA.

The IRA offers tax credits of up to US$7,500 to each buyer of a new electric vehicle (EV) only assembled in North America. It also requires EV batteries to be made with a certain portion of minerals mined or processed in the U.S. or countries or regions that have free trade agreements (FTA) with Washington.

Lee also asked for the U.S. expansion of the list of nations that provide EV battery makers with critical minerals affecting eligibility for credits under the IRA.

While critical minerals from 21 nations with which the U.S. has an FTA will meet the IRA requirements, South Korea has said the countries' current supply capacity is far from sufficient to satisfy all the requirements and some minerals are only available in specific areas.

The delegation discussed the U.S.–Korea free trade agreement, America’s second largest trade agreement behind the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, and promoting supply chain resilience and reducing economic dependence on China.

The delegation also discussed the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) negotiations that the Biden Administration currently is conducting with Korea and twelve other economies in the Indo-Pacific region.

Yoon had met with members of the Senate NATO Observer Group on the sidelines of a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in Vilnius in July.

The twenty-person delegation visited Korea on the first leg of its trip to four East Asian countries. Eight of its members spoke to President Yoon including Reps. Smith, Ritchie Torres (D-NY), Morgan McGarvey (D-KY), Michelle Steel (R-CA), Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), Amata Coleman Radewagen (R-American Samoa) and Nathaniel Moran (R-TX).

Following their time in South Korea, the delegation was set for further visits to Cambodia, Thailand, and Japan before returning to the United States.

In Cambodia Pan Sorasak, Minister of Commerce, met on August 2 with the lawmakers.

The meeting was also attended by W. Patrick Murphy, US Ambassador to Cambodia, and a number of colleagues. During the meeting, the two sides discussed ways to strengthen trade and investment cooperation between the two countries.

Mr. Sorasak also called on the US Congress to renew its GSP system, especially for goods such as clothing, footwear, travel goods, and so on, according to The Khmer Times.