On Monday, the World Trade Organization (WTO) has announced its decision on a dispute over the anti-dumping duties of South Korea on the pneumatic valve of Japan.
The World Trade Organization adopted the appeal of its panel’s report that was published earlier this month and had mainly found that Seoul had not violated any of their rules by imposing higher tariffs on the import of mechanical parts from their neighbor.
The report continues to uphold the initial ruling of 2018 by the dispute panel of WTO in favor of South Korea for most of the points of contention; however, it has still recommended Seoul to modify a few of its inconsistent measures for conforming to anti-dumping rules, mainly with respect to the determination of the duties.
Both Japan and South Korea have issued different interpretations of the ruling of the World Trade Organization, both of them insisting to be the winner of the case.
On Monday, South Korea maintained that the ruling had marked a victory for Seoul as majority of their claims were upheld by the WTO and that the determination of duties had never been included in the complaint that Tokyo had lodged.
It was further stated that the final ruling of the WTO on this dispute would not have an impact on the duties that were imposed on the Japanese goods.
Pneumatic valves are required for the mechanical movement in electronics, cars, and some other machines as well. Previously, the Japanese products accounted for over seventy per cent in the market of South Korea.
In the year 2015, South Korea planned the imposition of anti-dumping duties of around 11.7 to 22.8 percent on the Japanese pneumatic valves in five years, citing considerable damage to their domestic industry. In the year 2016, Japan challenged this measure at a dispute settlement body of the WTO.