The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) announced on June 27 that the Japanese government has decided to reinstate Korea back in the Appended Table 3 of the Export Trade Control Order, or also known as Japan’s “white list” of trading partners, according to the outcome of the Cabinet meeting held earlier the same day. The promulgation will be made on June 30, and the amendment will enter into force starting July 21.

This signifies that Korea-Japan export control issues are fully resolved after four years of restrictions since imposing them in July, 2019.

The two countries have been making concerted efforts to restore bilateral trade relations by announcing a joint message on export control issues on March 6, and holding policy dialogues on export control from March 14-16 and from April 10-25 to lift Japan’s export controls on three items.

With this reinstatement, both Korean and Japanese firms are expected to benefit as the latter can become eligible for softer requirements and blanket licenses in exporting strategic goods to Korea.

MOTIE assessed that “trust in trading between the two countries has fully recovered, thanks to the March summit meeting, Korea’s preemptive white list reinstatement of Japan, and the in-depth policy discourse between MOTIE and Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI),” and added that “Korea and Japan will continue to make joint efforts concerning bilateral and multilateral export control issues in the future.”