EU Requested to Ban the Subsidy for Shipbuilding Industry

EU Executive Committee has announced that they will bring a lawsuit against the subsidy for shipbuilding industry of Korea, and the related industries are concerned.

On 6th of Jun, EU Executive Committee has told the news agencies including AFP, that if they don’t reach an agreement on the matter until 30th of Sep, they will bring a lawsuit against it through WTO.

The executive committee also announced that they would recommend the EU members to restart the subsidy on the European shipbuilding industry to oppose the Korean subsidy. EU had banned the subsidy in 2000 Dec.

The executive committee has submitted the recommendation to the board of directors of EU Ministry of Industry, which was held in Luxemburg on 6th and 7th of Jun.

Last year, EU was trying to bring the matter to the lawsuit, but members of WTO didn’t agree, and it was dissipated. But EU has reinvestigated the matter and reported that the Korean industry is competing unfairly.

EU has pointed that the Korean government is providing subsidy through workouts and the shipbuilding industry with the government’s support is receiving large orders and shipbuilding enterprises of EU are having difficulties.

On the other hand, Korean government and shipbuilding industry are saying that EU execution committee’s assertion is not correct. But they are concerned that the export might decrease if EU brings the case to the lawsuit.

The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy announced, “Currently, different views of member countries are not resolved and EU executive committee has not come up with a conclusion. When an official announcement is made, we will find countermeasures with related enterprises.”

higgledy@donga.com