The United States and Korea are linked through an economic, military, and diplomatic alliance that has grown and endured for more than 70 years.

But that special relationship is right now being undermined by emerging evidence of what can only be described as a campaign of aggression from within the Korean government that is targeting American businesses and even American citizens.

Specifically, this is being done by new digital trade laws that American companies will tell you simultaneously favor Korean and Chinese businesses and strangle their ability to operate in Korea.

Even worse, however, American businesses report repeated pre-dawn raids on their offices, criminal threats hurled at their American employees, the falsifying of evidence in courts, and the rejection of attorney-client privilege. (RELATED: The One Hundred Billion Dollar Hostage)

Many familiar American companies – like Apple, Coupang, Google, Meta, Netflix, and Uber – have all been targeted, among others. For example, Google Maps is banned from operating in Korea – which curiously joins a rogue’s gallery of countries with the same policy, including China, Cuba and North Korea.

You can be sure that China is watching and learning. Every dollar American companies spend complying with regulatory harassment is a dollar not spent competing with Chinese firms like ByteDance, Temu, and Alibaba.

Consumers lose too. A recent study from the Competere Foundation found Korea’s discriminatory practices could cost the American economy more than $525 billion over the next decade. That’s about $4,000 per American household and taken directly from our country’s workers, families, and economy. 

That’s why, earlier this year, the Trump Administration secured explicit commitments in the Korea Strategic Trade and Investment Deal for the removal of “operational burdens” that impact U.S. tech companies. That should have been the end of it. But the restrictive policies have only continued.

One clue why is that Chairman Ju Byeong-ki of the Korea Fair Trade Commission (the primary body regulating American companies in Korea) is on the record with his opinions about America. They aren’t positive. (RELATED: South Korea Gives Trump A Literal Crown Weeks After ‘No Kings’ Rallies)

He recently wrote – in an editorial entitled “Trump’s tariff war is a trick to cover up the ills of American society” – that “white Midwestern American workers” are “angry” and have a “sense of deprivation” due to the policies of President Trump.

Americans have a right to be angry, but not for the reasons Chairman Ju thinks. It’s because we believe in free and fair trade, not global anti-competitiveness that tilts a level playing field against the most innovative American companies in the world.

That’s why the Trump Administration has been warning Korea that continuing to advance harmful policies against American companies would blow up the trade agreement, trigger U.S. government trade investigations, and harm our essential bilateral ties.

National security experts are raising the alarm. President Trump’s former National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien says that Korea’s moves are creating a “climate of fear” that is damaging the U.S.-Korea relationship, and that a strong U.S. response is needed.

I agree. That’s why this week, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the ways that countries in every corner of the world – unfortunately, including Korea – are using anti-American policies that discriminate against the ability of U.S. companies to do business. What we heard was alarming and antithetical to anyone who supports American innovation, competition, and the free market. (RELATED: DUKE: I’m Not So Sure Those Korean Hyundai Workers Were ‘Legal’)

The next day, the U.S. Trade Representative cancelled a key meeting with Korea. 

Korea is a great nation. And we cherish the partnership our nations have shared for eight decades. But Congress and our country can’t ignore intentional economic harm and damage to American innovation disguised as conventional global regulation.

U.S. Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA) is a senior member of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. 

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller.