Seoul officially responds to Tokyo on trade
(Baonghean) - This week, South Korea will complete the procedures to remove Japan from its list of trusted trade partners, but will still open final negotiations with Tokyo.
South Korea's Trade Ministry has almost completed procedures to remove Japan from its list of countries enjoying preferential export procedures, as the country has "operated an export control system that violates international standards."
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| Seoul officially removed Tokyo from the whitelist this week. Photo: Yonhap |
This is considered a retaliation against Japan for removing South Korea from its whitelist of countries that enjoy preferential export treatment, a decision that took effect on August 28. Accordingly, South Korea will no longer enjoy related benefits such as relaxed control policies on Japanese exports.
South Korea plans to categorize its trading partners into three groups instead of the current two, placing Tokyo in the middle. Once the plan is implemented, local companies that want to ship strategic goods to Japan will have to submit five different documents, instead of the current three, to get approval. The approval process will take about 15 days.
South Korea’s trade ministry said the country still has goodwill to negotiate with Japan, even after the new policy is implemented. In a separate move, South Korea on September 11 filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) over Japan’s restrictions on exports of key industrial materials to Seoul. However, this has not stopped Japan from canceling its decision to remove Seoul from its list of trusted trading partners.
Tensions between South Korea and Japan arose from a South Korean court ruling that ordered Japanese companies to compensate Koreans forced into labor during Japan's occupation of the Korean peninsula.