Japan’s Export Curbs on Korea: an Unjustifiable Threat to the Global Trading Order

Abstract

As the president of this year’s G20 summits, Japan led the leaders’ declaration on June 29, 2019 that reconfirmed the G20 members’ unwavering support for the principles of free, fair, non-discriminatory, transparent, predictable and stable trade. Two days later, on July 1, Japan announced a set of new control procedures to be placed on exports of Japanese materials, revising its export control regulations to the Republic of Korea. Japan claims its reasons for taking these measures lie in the deterioration of the trust relationship between Korea and Japan, making it difficult to coordinate export control measures, and that “inappropriate instances” had been witnessed in Korea’s export controls.