日언론 "WTO서 '안보조치 정당성'이 쟁점…한국에 유리할 수도"
Discussions at the WTO over Tokyo's trade restrictions were delayed to Wednesday afternoon local time.
One Japanese media outlet believes Tokyo will have a hard time justifying reasons for placing export curbs.
Oh Soo-young explains further.
What Japan may claim as "security reasons" for its export restrictions on South Korean companies... may be difficult to prove to the World Trade Organisation's decision-making body.
Tokyo had cited distrust in Korea's management of dual-use technologies,... as its reason for restricting exports of core semiconductor materials,... but observers, including U.S. tech groups and global media, point out the lack of concrete evidence for those claims.
"Well, they certainly have taken a page from Trump in that Trump has been using national security reasons for a lot of his protectionist actions prinicipally because the WTO has generally allowed national security exceptions. Most people would agree that Japan isn't that concerned about dual use technology."
The Japanese daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported Wedneday that there's been criticism of the vagueness of Tokyo's claims against Korea and the (quote) "inadequate" case for enacting export curbs in an opaque way.
The paper also said if the WTO panel see the measures as an act of political retaliation, rather than trade control,... the odds would be in Korea's favor.
Most observers believe it's clear that Japan is not genuinely concerned about export controls.
"Their intentions are more about trying to encourage different behavior from the Republic of Korea in terms of trying to get them to see more eye to eye with the Japanese government's position that the historical past is closed,... and that there should not be further recourse through the case against individual Japanese companies for forced labor and... even crimes that were committed during the colonial period."
Ahead of the WTO's General Council meeting on Wednesday,... Seoul's senior trade representative, Kim Seung-ho has argued that Tokyo is already violating WTO regulations with its export curbs.
The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade or "GATT" prohibits WTO member countries from restricting exports.
Kim will likely argue that the export curbs violate this provision.
And Japan's move to take South Korea off its trade whitelist could be seen as violating the rule of giving equal treatment to all other WTO countries.
Depending on the results of Wednesday's meeting, Seoul plans to decide whether to file a complaint with the WTO.
Oh Soo-young, Arirang News.
