Then-U.S. President Donald Trump, right, laughs with Apple CEO Tim Cook during a meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., in this March 2019 photo. Reuters-Yonhap

U.S. criticism of Korea's proposed online platform regulations has intensified as former U.S. President Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House in January next year.

Amid the strong criticism of Korea's plan to regulate market-dominant platform operators, concerns are rising that this issue could lead to economic retaliation from the incoming U.S. administration against its ally.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce issued another statement condemning Korea's approach to regulating digital platforms. This followed a previous one published in January, which highlighted concerns that the proposed competition policy could unintentionally benefit Chinese latecomers like AliExpress and Temu.

"This proposal would put the Korean government in a position of managing competition outcomes, rather than promoting competition in the market," said Charles Freeman, the chamber's senior vice president for Asia.

"Such government micromanagement of the economy will dull Korea's growth and long-term competitiveness. It also could position Korea to run afoul of its international trade commitments."

He made the remarks three months after the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) dropped its plan to pre-designate dominant platform firms and introduced a standard for such players, so that they will be subject to heightened regulatory scrutiny by the antitrust watchdog afterward.

The FTC's decision was attributed to a strong backlash from both Korean and U.S. tech firms.

Although the revised plan is seen as more lenient compared to the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea's suggestion of pre-designating dominant players, the U.S. business lobby group is opposing both approaches.

"In cooperation with lawmakers from the People Power Party, the FTC has put forward a bill in the National Assembly that, if passed, would target certain companies, while leaving out other competitors, both those based in Korea and in third countries, including China," Freeman said.

"There are more than a dozen other legislative proposals for platform regulation that have been introduced in the National Assembly this year. Many of them share similarly troubling features."

Jamieson Greer, who was nominated as the U.S. trade representative under the Trump administration, is another critic of Korea's online platform regulations, viewing the new law as a "threat to the trade relationship between the two countries."

On Dec. 9, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation published a report titled, "Why South Korea Should Resist New Digital Platform Laws."

"With U.S. elections over, South Korea risks a backlash from a new administration unlikely to tolerate policies that harm major U.S. businesses," said the Washington-based think tank focused on public policy surrounding industry and technology.

The Digital Economy Research Institute under the Korea Internet Corporations Association also warned that online platform regulations may prompt the Trump administration to impose tariffs on Korean products or take other retaliatory measures in accordance with Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974.

The logos of Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft are displayed on a mobile phone and a laptop screen in this photo taken in London, Dec. 18, 2020. AFP-Yonhap

Having clashed with major U.S. online platform operators before his reelection, Trump has recently adopted a friendlier stance toward them, following the so-called "great capitulation" of Silicon Valley moguls.

He recently held a series of meetings with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Alphabet co-founder Sergey Brin and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who expressed their intention to financially support the incoming U.S. administration.

"In the first term, everyone was fighting me. In this term, everybody wants to be my friend," Trump told reporters on Monday.

However, the Korean government appears unlikely to scrap its planned regulations, as a hearing at the National Assembly on Wednesday reaffirmed a consensus between the rival parties on the need for new measures to prevent anti-competitive business practices by platform firms.