Decision comes in response to similar move by Japan . . .
On Monday, South Korea announced that it had removed Japan from its export whitelist, which will come into effect in September. Tokyo, interpreting the move as a response to its own restrictions on exports to South Korea, claimed that this violates WTO rules. Tensions between the two countries, which have developed strong ties despite unresolved historical grievances, will almost surely deteriorate further with Seoul’s latest announcement.
In a category of its own . . .
South Korea created a new category of trade partners that meet the requirements to be on the export whitelist, but “violate the norms of international export controls,” pointing to Tokyo’s removal of South Korea from its own whitelist. Unsurprisingly, Japan was the only country added to this new category. As a result, the export of more than 1,700 strategic products will be affected, Japanese importers will have to file additional documents, and processing times are expected to increase from five to 15 days.
Struggling to contain the spread . . .
There are signs that the worsening political and commercial relationship is also affecting people-to-people ties, with celebrities and artists popular in both countries getting dragged into the conflict via cancellations of contracts and controversies over comments. Furthermore, Japan and South Korea are important partners in regional security vis-à-vis North Korea and China. With the state of the Japan-South Korea relationship now posing a security risk, some argue that Washington should intervene to preserve the region’s security architecture. But there is little indication that U.S. President Donald Trump has any appetite to play this role. Meanwhile, Seoul’s latest move underscores that détente is nowhere on the immediate horizon, and that the two countries may be in this ‘trade war’ for the long haul.
READ MORE
