Korea conducts legal review for potential WTO complaint over US anti-dumping duties
By KH디지털2Published : March 22, 2017 - 14:44
South Korea is considering whether to file an official complaint with the World Trade Organization over the United States' practice of levying anti-dumping duties on South Korean steel and chemical products, government sources said Wednesday.
"A legal review involving WTO experts is under way at the level of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy to see if it's possible to lodge a complaint," an official told Yonhap News Agency.
The complaint, if lodged, will take issue with the US' "arbitrary" manners of applying its anti-dumping regulations on South Korean goods, the source said.
South Korean steel, chemical and textile products have been slapped with heavy anti-dumping duties in recent months in what the officials described as the actualization of the Donald Trump administration's protectionist trade policy.
"Since the US revision of its anti-dumping regulations in May last year, they have applied to South Korean goods, but the situation sharply worsened under the (Trump administration's) protectionism," the official noted.
No decision has been made yet regarding whether South Korea will actually file the suit. The government will consider several factors, including bilateral relations and real benefits of the potential action, before making a final decision, according to the source. (Yonhap)
