[Korea.net News, Economy / Industry, November 29 2007] WTO orders Japan lift punitive tariffs on Hynix chips

The World Trade Organization (WTO) has ruled that Japan’s countervailing duties on computer chips made by Korea’s Hynix Semiconductor are illegal under international trade rules and ordered Tokyo to remove the punitive trade barrier, the Seoul government said Thursday (Nov. 29).

Korea filed a complaint with the Geneva-based WTO in March last year after the Japanese government imposed a punitive tariff of 27.2 percent on Hynix memory chips, accusing the world’s second-largest memory chipmaker of receiving an unfair subsidy from the government in 2002.

The Korean government has denied any role in arranging such a bailout.