Korea Wins in DRAM Dispute With Japan

18/06/2015 10:20 - 566 Views

The World Trade Organization in Geneva has ruled in favor of Korea's claims that punitive duties Japan imposed on chips from Korea's Hynix Semiconductor were discriminatory. The ruling ends a nearly two-year dispute over Japan's taxation on Korean-made DRAM chips.

The WTO's Dispute Settlement Body ruled against Japan's countervailing duties imposed on the chips, saying they violate the world body's convention on subsidies.

Countervailing duties refer to measures a country can adopt in international trade to impose more tariffs when imports are subsidized by a foreign country and negatively impact domestic business.

While Seoul ceased to provide subsidies to Hynix in 2005, the Japanese government imposed a 27,2 % tariff starting in January 2006. Korea filed a suit against these measures with the World Trade Organization the same year.

Seoul won in the initial WTO ruling in July though the panel didn't ask Tokyo to scrap or cut the fees. While the world body still hasn't ordered Japan to eliminate the fees this week, the two rulings should pressure Tokyo to recalculate the duties.

Arirang News
30/11/2007

Source: english.chosun.com