S.Korea's Decision To Remove Japan From Trade White List 'Extremely Regrettable' - Tokyo

Tokyo deeply regrets South Korea's move to remove Japan from its trade white list and requests explanations, the Japanese minister of economy, trade and industry, Isshu Sugawara, said on Wednesday

TOKYO (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th September, 2019) Tokyo deeply regrets South Korea's move to remove Japan from its trade white list and requests explanations, the Japanese minister of economy, trade and industry, Isshu Sugawara, said on Wednesday.

Until now, there were two trade lists in South Korea. One included most trusted trading partners, while the other listed countries that did not have special preferences. The decision, which entered into force at midnight (15:00 GMT on Tuesday), has created an in-between group for Japan.

"It's extremely regrettable," Sugawara told reporters, as quoted by the Kyodo news agency.

The minister, however, noted that the move would not have a serious impact on Japan's imports and exports.

"In terms of security of imports and exports of our country, there is no problem. It is necessary to find out for what reasons this measure was taken," Sugawara added.

Kuniharu Nakamura, the chairman of Japan Foreign Trade Council, similarly believes that the impact of the move on foreign trade indicators will be very limited.

"The impact is actually small," Nakamura said.

Japan believes that South Korea has removed it from the trade white list without any justification, in retaliation against last month's similar measure by Japan, and thus violated World Trade Organisation rules.

Trade tensions between the two neighbors heightened in early July after Japan canceled preferential treatment for the export of fluorinated polyimides, photoresist and hydrogen fluoride to South Korea, dealing a serious blow to the nation's high-tech industries. According to Tokyo, the restrictions were caused by the "loss of confidence" in Seoul as the latter allegedly transferred Japanese technologies to Pyongyang. In August, Tokyo removed Seoul from its list of trading partners with preferential rights.

Seoul, in turn, believes that Tokyo's actions were triggered by a South Korean court's ruling on reparations to former Korean workers who were forced into labor during World War II by Japan, a colonial power at the time.