Park Ji-won is a writer for The Korea Times who has been covering a wide range of topics from Korea’s culture to its politics. An avid journalism enthusiast to the core, Ji-won brings a thoughtful and unique perspective to every topic she covers. On weekends, you'll often find her contemplating life’s purpose on a yoga mat — with a cup of quality tea in hand. A native Korean speaker by birth and fluent in English through her work, she went to college in Japan and is learning Chinese and French — hoping to add Polish, Russian and Thai to the mix.
Taskforce urges Japan to cancel trade curbs
Hong Nam-ki, second from right, minister of economy and finance, speaks before holding a bipartisan meeting on tackling Japan's trade regulations against Korea at the National Assembly, Wednesday. Yonhap
By Park Ji-won
By Park Ji-won
The bipartisan consultative body on tackling Japan's trade curbs pledged to urge Japan to withdraw the “unfair” trade measure against Korea and hold a bilateral negotiation with Korea.
“All participants of the consultative body shared the understanding that Japan has implemented 'unfair and inappropriate' trade regulations against Korea by turning a diplomatic issue created by the past historical issues, into an economic measure,” Hong Nam-ki, the minister of economy and finance, told reporters Wednesday after having the first meeting of the organization consisting of representatives from the government, political parties and private sector.
The meeting was attended by Hong; Kim Sang-jo, senior presidential secretary for policy; Cho Sei-young, vice foreign minister; Sung Yoon-mo, industry minister; policy chiefs of five political parties and business leaders including Park Yong-maan, chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI).
The members of the organization also agreed to call on Japan to halt its implementation of additional trade regulations and pledged more investment in the production of parts and materials to reduce the reliance on Japanese suppliers.
Large companies agreed to boost cooperation with small- and medium-sized firms. The government also pledged to allocate a larger budget to the research and development (R&D) departments of firms in the parts and materials industries while the Assembly will take legislative support to realize the measures.
The measures came amid concerns that Japan would remove Korea from its “white list” of countries with more procedural benefits in trade with Japan. Japan is reportedly considering whether to remove Seoul from the list on Friday during a Cabinet meeting.
Earlier, President Moon Jae-in and leaders of political parties plan to form a pan-national body to cope with the escalating trade disputes with Japan. Representatives of the nation's major political parties agreed Monday to establish the consultative body to tackle the matter.