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| President Moon Jae-in, second from right, speaks during a meeting of the presidential National Economic Advisory Council at Cheong Wa Dae, Thursday. Yonhap |
By Do Je-hae
President Moon Jae-in continued to publicly criticize Japan during a meeting Thursday at Cheong Wa Dae that was held to gather opinions from economic experts about how to deal with the export restrictions imposed recently by Japan.
The President requested once again for Tokyo to end its unilateral trade pressure, but also hinted at resolving the issue through diplomatic efforts in a meeting of the presidential National Economic Advisory Council.
The South Korean leader reiterated that not just South Korea but also Japan will suffer from the impact of the trade friction with Seoul.
"It is uncertain what Japan gains from its decision to implement trade retaliation measures against South Korea," Moon said at the start of the meeting, according to Cheong Wa Dae press pool reports. "Ultimately, this is a game that has no winners where all parties will be victimized, including Japan."
Moon also underlined that Japan will end up losing global trust and called on the neighboring country to withdraw its export restrictions on Seoul immediately.
"Each country has its own strengths and weaknesses. If any country weaponizes its competitive leverage in a specific sector, the peaceful international free trade order will be hampered," Moon said. "In the end, Japan will lose credibility in the international community. Japanese companies will also suffer the damage of losing their sources of demand. Japan must cancel its unfair export restrictions as soon as possible."
The remarks came amid growing uncertainty in the South Korean economy after Tokyo's decision to remove Seoul from its list of trusted trading partners receiving preferential treatment in export procedures for strategic items crucial to Korea's exporting sector.
During the meeting, the participants, which included 18 scholars with a range of economic expertise, discussed trade and industrial policies to respond to Japan's trade restrictions.
"It is time to start with short-term measures that minimize damage to businesses and also carry out comprehensive and fundamental measures to revive the vitality of our economy, he said. "The government has announced short-term measures and medium- and long-term measures accordingly."
In a statement released by the presidential office, Cheong Wa Dae said the participants exchanged their candid views over the issue and shared their thoughts, such as the diversification of markets including ASEAN nations and India and expanding support for small- and medium-sized enterprises.
It was the third time for the presidential pool of economic advisers to meet since the President took power in May 2017. There have been criticisms that the meetings are too sporadic, signaling that the President is not very enthusiastic about collecting diverse opinions on his economic policies.
Moon also slammed Tokyo for flip-flopping on the reasons for the Japanese decision and denounced Japan for applying export restrictions in retaliation to historical disputes following a local court ruling last year that ordered Japanese companies to compensate the surviving South Korean victims of wartime forced labor.
"At first they said they were due to the Supreme Court decision on forced labor and then they switched their stance to the lack of proper management of exports of strategic goods. This leads us to question what Japan's true intentions are," Moon said.
