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Moon Urges Withdrawing Export Curbs as Japan Voters Back Them
Moon Urges Withdrawing Export Curbs as Japan Voters Back Them
By Isabel Reynolds and Jihye Lee Bloomberg
July 7, 2019,
South Korean President Moon Jae-in urged Japan to withdraw new restrictions on exports in his first public remarks on a dispute that erupted last week and has intensified animosity between the two countries.
Moon asked his Asian neighbor to “return to the principle of free trade that Japan has been pushing for” and said he would “take responsive measures” if South Korean companies were harmed by the new restrictions.
The president’s comments came as a new poll showed most Japanese approved of their government’s decision to tighten controls on exports to South Korea of key materials needed by its tech industry.
Some 58% of respondents to the survey carried out by the Japan News Network, or JNN, said they approved of the government’s policy, compared with 24% who did not.
Moon asked his Asian neighbor to “return to the principle of free trade that Japan has been pushing for” and said he would “take responsive measures” if South Korean companies were harmed by the new restrictions.
The president’s comments came as a new poll showed most Japanese approved of their government’s decision to tighten controls on exports to South Korea of key materials needed by its tech industry.
Some 58% of respondents to the survey carried out by the Japan News Network, or JNN, said they approved of the government’s policy, compared with 24% who did not.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-08/japan-voters-back-stricter-checks-on-tech-exports-to-south-korea
Abe is mimicking Trump's Hwawei act on South Korea, removing South Korea's preferential trade treatment by taking them off the so called "white list" of preferred trading partners. Over the weekend he and his minister made statements to the effect, that South Korea could not be trusted to respect trade sanctions against North Korea, and hinted that strategic semiconductor component materials may have been transferred to North Korea in the past, and that Japan has no way of knowing what happens to those exported materials. He also made the analogy that if South Korea didn't abide by political settlements of historical disputes (over Japanese war crimes) that South Korea could not be trusted with materials with national security implications for Japan. Those agreements were made by pro-Japanese South Korean right wing dictator Park Chung Hee, in 1965, concerning forced labor, and the second 2015 agreement on comfort women, made by daughter former President Park Geun Hye, now in prison, for corruption and abuse of power.
Many South Koreans regard the Japanese position as an excuse to get around WTO proscriptions on the kind of economic retaliation Japan is taking against South Korean businesses for private individual lawsuits brought by citizens against Japanese corporations in South Korea with a legacy of war crime participation. South Korean President Moon Jae In has proposed mediating the dispute over the private law suits against Japanese companies while at the same time, a South Korean grass roots movement to boycott Japanese goods and travel services has begun among small businesses and consumers in response to Japanese trade restrictions.
