South Korea has taken its campaign against the EU’s planned “Made in Europe” rules directly to Parliament. Officials from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, led by director-general Kim Jang-hee, met lawmakers in Strasbourg on 20 and 21 October to argue that the Industrial Accelerator Act should not discriminate against Korean companies, SBS News reported on 22 October.
The act, proposed by the European Commission in March, aims to expand production in strategic industries by attaching European-origin and low-carbon criteria to public support tools such as procurement and subsidies. Seoul fears tighter preferences for domestic goods could penalise its firms in cars, nuclear power, steel and batteries.
Seoul’s ask: equivalence
The delegation met Parliament vice-president Martin Hojsík and leading members of the internal market, trade and industry committees. It asked the EU to recognise Korea as a reliable partner and to apply the principle of equivalence consistently, including in public procurement and public support. Kim argued Korean investment had long supported European production and jobs. Seoul says it has sent four government position papers since March and set up a joint public-private task force on 15 October.
A contested text
The lobbying lands as Parliament’s work intensifies. Agence Europe reported that more than 5,000 amendments had been tabled to the draft report by mid-October. One centre-right amendment would include partners with EU trade or procurement agreements but give them a year to prove reciprocity; Socialist amendments add anti-relocation conditions and would halve the foreign-investment screening threshold from €100m to €50m. SBS’s translated report says Parliament announced its position in September, but the volume of amendments still being tabled suggests committee work is not finished. The Council set out its position in July.
For exporters like Korea, the real fight is over who counts as “European enough” to qualify.
What to watch
- Committee votes on the draft report and whether trade-partner equivalence survives.
- Whether other partners with large EU investments follow Seoul’s lobbying.
- Talks between Parliament and Council on a final text.
