China News Service, July 29th, a comprehensive report. On July 29th, the World Trade Organization (WTO) Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) held a regular meeting at its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, and decided to establish a dispute settlement body expert on Japan’s trade restrictions on South Korea. group.
According to previous reports, in July 2019, Japan announced to strengthen its control over three types of semiconductor raw materials exported to South Korea, and removed South Korea from the export "white list." The South Korean side believes that this is an "economic retaliation" implemented by Japan after the South Korean Supreme Court made a judgment on the "Forced Labor Claim". Subsequently, South Korea also removed Japan from the "white list" of trade.
Data map: South Korean people boycott Japanese goods.
In September 2019, the South Korean government decided to file a complaint with the WTO on Japan’s export control to South Korea and requested consultations under the WTO dispute settlement mechanism.
Since 2020, South Korea has repeatedly asked Japan to make a statement on the removal of export controls on South Korea, and set May 31 as the deadline. However, the Japanese side finally did not give a reply, so the South Korean government decided to restart the dispute settlement procedure on June 2.
Since then, South Korea requested the establishment of a "first-instance" expert group in the World Trade Organization's Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) on the grounds that Japan's improper practice of strengthening the export control of semiconductor materials against South Korea. In this regard, Japan did not agree to set up an expert group at the DSB meeting on June 29 and rejected it.