6 August 2019
With all the news about the Trump Administration’s trade disputes with China, Japan, Canada, Mexico, and the EU, the ordinary investor probably hasn’t noticed one trade war which doesn’t involve the US but could have serious consequences in East Asia. On 2 August 2019 the Japanese government removed South Korea from a “whitelist” of 27 countries which have blanket approval to buy certain sensitive Japanese exports. The whitelist exempts the specified countries from having to get individual approvals for the purchase of hundreds of commercially sensitive materials – for example, materials which have military as well as civilian uses… [read more]