Abe's absurd assertions

Tokyo should stop economic retaliation for political reason

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has insisted his government's export restrictions on semiconductor materials to Korea conform to World Trade Organization rules and do not breach free trade principles. "The Korean government has altered the measures it had implemented based on trust between nations," Abe said in an interview with the Yomiuri, Tuesday. "Our move is in line with WTO rules. This has nothing to do with free trade."

This is impossible for us to understand. The Japanese leader cited the issue of trust, acknowledging the recent step is of a retaliatory nature against the Korean Supreme Court's ruling here in favor of Koreans forced to work as laborers before and during World War II. It is unseemly for Tokyo to have violated the WTO rule that bans economic retaliation for political reasons, and then make untenable assertions. Despite a strong backlash, Japan began to implement the retaliatory step Thursday by tightening regulations on exports of three key materials Korean firms need to make memory chips and display panels.

One can see how unreasonable the recent Japanese move was from the reactions of the Japanese news media. The Nihon Keizai, in an editorial Tuesday, said, "We have a strong suspicion that the latest step came from the idea to use trade policy as a tool of international politics." Noting that it is a scheme used by the Trump administration and China, the newspaper emphasized that Tokyo had drawn a line separating it from such behavior.

In 2010 when Beijing restricted the export of rare earth materials to Japan after the two countries clashed over the Senkaku (or Diaoyu) Islands, Tokyo brought Beijing to the WTO, claiming the latter was engaging in unfair trade retaliation. Do Japanese officials think their latest move is any different from the Chinese step nine years ago? The Abe administration should bear in mind that the withdrawal of the retaliatory move as early as possible is the only way to regain trust at home and abroad.

Korean politicians should also engage in a bipartisanship approach to cope with the diplomatic friction. Rep. Na Kyungwon, floor leader of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP), said she would push for a meeting with the two countries' parliamentarians. Na and her party ought to move cautiously so as not to cause internal division in the face of an external threat. Now they need to refrain from criticizing the Moon Jaein administration for a lack of diplomatic effort to solve the dispute with Japan. The rival parties should work together to settle the matter.