Korea, Japan begin talks on corporate exchanges, trade in earnest after summit
Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, center, speaking during the Korea-Japan Business Roundtable at the Japan Business Federation, or Keidanren, in Tokyo, March 17. Yonhap
Some 100 government and corporate officials from Korea and Japan held a meeting Thursday on trade and new industry cooperation, the first major meeting after the two sides vowed to improve diplomatic and economic ties earlier this month, Seoul's industry ministry said.
They discussed ways to boost cooperation in new industry sectors and economic exchanges in the trade meeting in Seoul, co-hosted by the Korea International Trade Association (KITA) and the Korea-Japan Economic Association, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.
The meeting came two weeks after Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida agreed to improve the countries' strained relationship stemming from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of Korea.
"It is necessary for companies of the two nations to strengthen cooperation on supply chains of advanced industries, net-zero goals and making inroads into new markets," Deputy Trade Minister Jeong Dae-jin said during the meeting.
Separately, Industry Minister Lee Chang-yang held talks with the chiefs of nine Japanese companies, including chemical firm Toray Industries, and asked for their greater investment in Korea.
The ministry said five additional meetings, meant to reinvigorate bilateral economic and industrial exchanges, and involving around 400 companies from the two nations, will be held in the first half of this year.
According to a recent survey by KITA, 63.6 percent of the 187 Korean trade firms said the recent Seoul-Tokyo summit is expected to have positive impacts on business.
Japan accounted for 6 percent of Korea's total trade last year, far lower than that with other neighboring countries. The comparable figure with China came to 21.9 percent.
Last week, Japan lifted export curbs on key industry materials to Korea, which had been in place since July 2019 in apparent retaliation against the Korean Supreme Court rulings in 2018 that ordered Japanese companies to pay compensation to victims of Japan's wartime forced labor.
Korea withdrew a complaint it filed with the World Trade Organization on the issue, and the two nations agreed to put each other back onto their respective "whitelists" of trusted trading partners. (Yonhap)