Japan to pressure South Korea over seafood ban at WTO
25/10/2014 26Japan hopes to up international pressure on South Korea during an upcoming World Trade Organization meeting to remove its ban on seafood from Japanese prefectures, reported Japan Times.
South Korea imposed a ban on seafood imports from eight Japanese prefectures in September 2013, citing fears of radiation levels due to the Fukushima disaster of March 2011.
Japan will now voice its opposition to the ban during a WTO meeting in Geneva, said Japan Times.
It will be the fourth time it does so, since October 2013, it noted.
If South Korea maintains its current stance, Japan will consider taking the issue to the WTO dispute settlement process, sources told the newspaper.
The ban affects the prefectures of Aomori, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Chiba and Gunma, because of worries about radioactive water leaking into the sea from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
Japan has provided 3,000 pages of documents about the safety of the seafood and measures taken against the tainted water leaks, said Japan Times.
According to the newspaper, South Korea said last month it would set up a special panel to examine whether Japanese seafood is safe, but an official at Japan’s Fisheries Agency said no progress has been reported to the Japanese side so far.
Source: undercurrentnews
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