January 20, 2006 – The Japanese government plans to initiate a 27.2% countervailing tariff on DRAM memory chips from South Korea’s Hynix Semiconductor Inc. as soon as Jan. 27, according to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun.
The Ministries of Finance and Economy, Trade, and Industry have been investigating complaints from Elpida Memory Inc. and Micron Japan Ltd. since June 2004, and found in October that Hynix did in fact illegally receive government-backed loans.
Both the US and EU have imposed similar duties; the WTO upheld the US’ 44% tariff in July.