In a past blog post, I discussed President Trump’s use of
tariffs when dealing with China and the impact that doing so has on trade. It
seems as though these trade wars are now spreading between other countries as
well.
According to an article by the Economist, titled, “A trade
dispute between Japan and South Korea has Trumpian echoes”, it discusses the
past and present trade issues going on between these two Asian countries. The
article states that tensions began a very long time ago due to Japan’s colonization
of Korea.
More recently, on July 4th, Japan began putting
restrictions on exports to South Korea on certain chemicals. The chemicals
included are: fluorinated polyimide,
photoresists and hydrogen fluoride. Apparently, Japan produces roughly 90% of
global production of these chemicals. These chemicals are specifically used to
make memory chips for a ton of electronics. This is the main problem. South
Korea is, in fact, the biggest manufacturer of memory chips, so placing
restrictions on exports would negatively impact the entire world and many other
supply chains outside of just these two countries.
In another article on BBC News, titled, “How Japan's trade
row with South Korea could hit tech supplies”, it states, “The moves have drawn
anger from South Korea, and earlier this month President Moon Jae-in described
the situation as an "unprecedented emergency" for his country's
economy” (Harrison). This upcoming Tuesday, the World Trade Organization is
going to review these trade restrictions.
Like all relationships between countries, the two must come
to an agreement between themselves; however, I cannot help but to think that Trump’s
radical protectionist trade policies are making issues like this normal and
accepted. Trump is known to use trade weapons to get what he desires from other
countries and this is not only unfair, but dangerous. Damaging relationships is
terrible for the economy and trade is absolutely necessary for an economy to
run and flourish. All in all, I think it is important to recognize that these
unfair practices are not going to solve anything, and hopefully the issue
between Japan and South Korea is resolved.
Sources:
A Trade Dispute
between Japan and South Korea Has Trumpian Echoes. 2019. The Economist, The Economist Newspaper, www.economist.com/leaders/2019/07/18/a-trade-dispute-between-japan-and-south-korea-has-trumpian-echoes.
Harrison,
Virginia. How Japan's Trade Row with South Korea Could Hit Tech Supplies. 2019.
BBC News, BBC,
www.bbc.com/news/business-49041285.
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