Trade Minister Isshu Sugawara confirmed that Japan agreed to have a WTO (World Trade Organization) consultation with South Korea. Accordingly, the consultation is pertinent to the existent hyperpoliticized and history-biased trade dispute.
Reportedly, Japan has agreed to attend the consultation since they want to elaborate Japan’s stance diplomatically. That said, Minister Sugawara assured that the country will not violate any of WTO’s rules.
“We have decided to accept the negotiations requested by South Korea. Japan’s position is that its review of trade controls is consistent with WTO rules and that there is no change to that. We’ll make arrangements through diplomatic channels. We will give South Korea a thorough explanation,” he stated.
Meanwhile, on South Korea’s side, filing a complaint to WTO has indicated the country’s furious attempt to fight back Japan’s unfair, one-sided, trade policies. If the talks, by any change, provide no resolution to the matter that benefits the country, the government will reportedly ask WTO to set up a dispute settlement panel.
However, many experts, even those from WTO, doubt that the consultation will truly settle the dispute. Yuka Fukunaga, a professor whose specialties are in international economic law and the WTO at Waseda University, explained that bringing the dispute to a global forum is not desirable and will most likely fail to result in the wanted dispute settlement.
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WTO to Mediate the Talks between Japan and South Korea
On September 11, South Korea clarified that it had filed a complaint to WTO over Japan’s trade policies. Recently, Japan has responded to the inquiry.
Now that both countries have made confirmation, they must hold the first consultation within 30 days of the original request. To count the date, the talks will most likely take place in the not too distant future.
If, after 60 days of consultation, both countries fail to come into an agreement, WTO will establish a panel of Dispute Settlement Body. The body, in order to generate a conclusion, will take approximately two years.
In short, the panel will work on a report, which is equivalent to a ruling, within six months. Afterwards, the panel should determine whether the country in question, which in this case is Japan, has violated WTO rules. If the panel proved that Japan had done so, the country had to sort out the situations.
Reflecting upon both countries’ dissimilar, equally robust, stances, experts doubt that this will result in anything at the end of the day. Despite the skepticism, South Korea still firmly believes that the dialogue will be able to rectify the matter.
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