WTO backs Korea in DRAM duty dispute

The World Trade Organization has come down on the side of South Korea’s Hynix Semiconductor in its long-running countervailing duty spat with the US Department of Commerce.

The Geneva-based organisation published the full text of its ruling on the case yesterday, in which it told the US to rethink the 44.7% counterveiling duties imposed on Hynix after complaints that the Korean DRAM vendor had been indirectly bailed out by the Seoul government.

The WTO declared that the US’s decision had not been reached in accordance with the appropriate procedures. As a result, it recommended that “the US bring the relevant measures into conformity with the relevant agreement”.

This means the US will have to work its way through the entire procedure for imposing the duties once again.

However, according to the Korea Times, the Korean government now expects the US will simply drop the duties, and that duties imposed by the EU and an investigation by Japanese authorities will go the same way.

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