With a focus of giving a boost to their economies, commerce ministers of Japan, South Korea and the United States promised to cooperate on economically strategic issues such as artificial intelligence (AI) safety, export controls, clean energy and semiconductor supply chains. “We’re doubling down our efforts to work together,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said at the start of the meeting in Washington.
“As we three are leading economies in manufacturing, services, technology and innovation and we have to work together to the benefit not just for our countries, but the safety and security of the world,” Raimondo said.
She was joined at the inaugural trilateral meeting by Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry Ken Saito and South Korean Trade, Industry, and Energy Minister Ahn Duk-geun. The meetings were decided by the countries’ leaders at an August summit at Camp David.
The ministers said in a statement after the meeting they would “focus our joint efforts on a set of strategic areas designed to enhance the security and prosperity of our people and the Indo-Pacific region. We aim to prioritize cooperation to strengthen the resilience of supply chains in key sectors, including semiconductors and batteries,” as well as artificial intelligence safety, critical minerals, cybersecurity and technical standard setting.
Saito said the three “agreed to realize a strong and reliable supply chain for strategic materials by working together with like-minded countries, including Japan, the United States, and South Korea, and designing a market where factors other than price are fairly evaluated.”
“We expect the South Korea-U.S.-Japan industry ministers’ meeting to serve as an institutional basis for deepening and developing industrial cooperation among the three countries and jointly responding to global risks,” Ahn said.
United States President Joe Biden had last month promised to sharply increase tariffs on critical minerals that come from China. This was done in a bid to reduce dependence on the east Asian giant in critical mineral supply chains. In a bid to severely curtail China’s chip making capability the United States had asked its allies to stop domestic companies from providing chipmaking tools to dent China’s chipmaking companies
(With inputs From Reuters)
