National Assembly delegation visits US to debate IRA on ‘discrimination against Korean electric vehicles’
From Seoul = Reporter Seonwook Kim [email protected]
Published 2022-12-04 16:57:25
A National Assembly delegation departed for the United States on 4 to express concerns over the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which excludes Korean-made electric vehicles from subsidies.
A delegation from the National Assembly, including Democratic Party Representative Yoon Kwan-seok, a member of the National Assembly’s Committee on Commerce, Industry, Energy, and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, will visit Washington DC from 5 to 9 (local time). The National Assembly delegation was jointly composed of National Assembly and government members, including President Yoon, Opposition Secretary Kim Han-jung, People’s Power Member Choi Hyeong-doo, and Ahn Deok-geun, head of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy Trade Negotiations Headquarters.
The delegation plans to meet with members of the US Congress, including key members of the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee. While conveying internal concerns about the IRA’s discriminatory subsidies for electric vehicles, he plans to press for the law to be revised to address the discrimination.
An amendment to the IRA has been proposed in the US Senate and House of Representatives to suspend the electric vehicle tax credit requirement for three years, respectively. The delegation intends to persuade the need to change the law to address discrimination in electric vehicle tax credits, focusing on this amendment, and ask Congress to promptly review the IRA.
The IRA provides tax breaks only for electric cars made in North America and contains discriminatory tax breaks for electric cars made in Korea. As a result, Korean-made EVs will be barred from receiving subsidies of up to $7,500 per unit, raising concerns about disruptions in the export of some 100,000 EVs each year.
