Japan has reportedly requested talks with South Korea over that country’s alleged subsidies to its shipbuilding industry. The talks would be held under the dispute settlement process of the World Trade Organization.
Japan filed a complaint with the WTO over South Korean shipbuilding support practices back in November 2018. That led to talks between the two in December 2018 that did not produce any agreement. When more than a year passed without agreement, Japan had the option, under the WTO rules of asking for the WTO to form a dispute resolution panel. That hasn’t happened, so it looks likely that this latest request is more of an attempt to revive the existing WTO negotiations than the filing of a new complaint.
Talks on shipbuilding overcapacity have been going on for many years under the auspices of another international trade organization, the OECD, by its Working Party 6 (WP6).
It last met in December, and a statement issued on January 24 by the Shipbuilders’ Association of Japan may shed some light on why Japan has now gone back to the WTO.
