Japan and South Korea will hold senior-level talks on Dec 16 to discuss Tokyo’s export restrictions, Japanese Trade Minister Hiroshi Kajiyama said on Thursday (Dec 5). Speaking to reporters, Mr Kajiyama repeated Tokyo’s stance that Japan could address the issue of its export controls once South Korea takes appropriate action on its own management of export controls.
Japan in July put export curbs on materials used to make semiconductors, threatening the global supply chain of chips, a pillar of the South Korean economy.
Translation: We are OK to change our mind if you change your the mind, but we will not be first.
This article describes many of the problems that should be addressed to solve the trade dispute:
“The problem is that there is not an obvious way out and things have gone too far for either side to back down,” Dujarric said. “I do not believe this is going to get to the point where the two countries will actually be fighting each other, but this is going to take a very long time to heal.”