Tough road ahead for Seoul's trade row with Tokyo

Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon, right, speaks in a meeting with Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha and other senior government officials at the Government Complex in Sejong, Thursday. Yonhap

By Lee Min-hyung

South Korea did not get the response it wanted at the World Trade Organization (WTO) General Council meeting in Geneva, with Tokyo declining to accept Seoul's proposal to have one-on-one negotiations there regarding their ongoing trade dispute.

The delegation from Seoul focused on raising awareness of Tokyo's “unilateral and unfair” trade restrictions during the WTO session, Wednesday (KST). The South Korean delegation was seeking international consensus on Japan's "unfair" trade acts.

But WTO member countries, including the United States, did not express any particular reactions. Since the trade friction erupted earlier this month, Seoul has requested Washington's “active intervention” in the dispute, as Korea and Japan continue to fail to narrow their differences on the issue.

Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Yoon Soon-gu said Thursday President Moon Jae-in has requested U.S. President Donald Trump to play the role of “facilitator” to resolve the worsening dispute.

“President Moon has called on Trump to play the facilitating role in the ongoing trade dispute,” Yoon said in a media briefing. But Trump is unlikely to side with either country, according to him.

Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon stepped up criticism of Japan, Thursday, saying that Tokyo's move to exclude Seoul from its “whitelist” of countries receiving trade benefits is a “political act to disturb international trading.”

“Japan's export curb is a political act that will disturb global trade,” Lee said in a meeting with ministers. “If Japan keeps aggravating the status quo, unexpected consequences will result,” he said.

He also urged Tokyo to come to the negotiation table and seek diplomatic solutions to stop the current situation from worsening.

At the WTO, the South Korean delegation made an impromptu offer to its Japanese counterpart to have a one-on-one meeting on the scene, according to Seoul's trade ministry. But Japan flatly rejected the offer, saying that the issue was not something to be discussed during the WTO.

“Japan turned down the official proposal without any valid reason, and this shows that the country is not blameless enough to come forward for negotiations and explain its actions,” Kim Seung-ho, deputy minister for multilateral and legal affairs at the ministry, said after the council meeting ended.

On July 4, Tokyo started applying export restriction measures of three chemical materials to Seoul crucial for manufacturing semiconductors and display panels.

This has drawn a strong backlash from Seoul, which has since called for Tokyo to hold talks to resolve the dispute. But with Japan denying any dialogue requests from the South, the latter decided to bring the case to the WTO.

As Tokyo keeps declining Seoul's proposal, South Korea aims to keep raising its voice on the international stage by stressing that the global economy may continue to fall victim to the “Japan-led economic retaliation on the South.”

“We mentioned that Tokyo's ongoing actions threaten the free trade system and will harm the global value chain, and also expressed our strong willingness to resolve the issue in an amicable manner,” Kim said.