Japan and South Korea exchange barbs at WTO meeting over trade dispute
- South Korean envoy said Japan risked causing disruption to the world economy and undermining the WTO
- Japanese envoy insisted export restrictions were nothing unusual and motivated by national security concerns
South Korea tried to bring international pressure to bear on Japan by airing its complaint at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on Wednesday, the latest move in a festering dispute that has seen Washington’s two biggest Asian allies lobbing accusations at each other.
Japan has enraged South Korea with a plan to “normalise” trade procedures that are currently “simplified”, effectively curbing exports to South Korea and erecting a barrier that could disrupt the global supply of semiconductors.
That followed a ruling last year by a South Korean court that Japanese companies had to pay compensation to South Koreans forced to work in Japanese factories during Japan’s occupation of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945.
Japanese ambassador Junichi Ihara told the WTO meeting that the change in trade procedures was Japan’s prerogative, was nothing unusual, and reflected Seoul’s failure to maintain dialogue on the mutual streamlining of trade procedures.
It also was also based on national security concerns, following “some cases of inappropriate export” to South Korea, the ambassador said.
That national security claim could make it exempt from the rules of the WTO, where South Korea chose to raise the issue on Wednesday, sending deputy trade minister Kim Seung-ho to address the WTO’s top-level meeting short of a ministerial conference.
“It’s not at all a trade measure, it’s not at all a security measure, it’s purely strategically planned to gain the upper hand in the diplomatic rows, I mean the forced labour issues,” Kim told reporters.