South Korea Wants More Export Control Coordination, Less 'Informing,' Commerce Official Says

As the U.S. tries to convince allies to adopt similar export controls against China (see 2210270047 and 2210070049), some trading partners have voiced concerns over the U.S.’s strategy, saying they would rather have worked on crafting restrictions alongside the U.S. as opposed to having controls forced upon them, a Commerce Department official said.

Elizabeth Economy, a senior adviser for China at Commerce, said South Korea specifically has said it wishes some U.S. export controls were more collaborative. “There was concern expressed about the U.S. as a reliable partner in terms of, maybe not so much always the substance of our export control policies, but are we always coordinating and informing and engaging our allies with enough advance notice?” Economy said, speaking during a Nov. 29 event hosted by the Wilson Center. “Is it coordination, or is it informing them?”

Economy said there’s a “not so subtle difference” between the two, and there was “perhaps a little bit of a call for more coordination and collaboration and less informing.” But she also said the U.S. and South Korea agree on many China issues, adding that South Korea is “falling on the same trajectory as many countries … in terms of grappling with the recognition that China, under Xi Jinping, poses a real challenge to regional and even global security.”

She also pointed to the fact that South Korea has joined Western sanctions against Russia; BIS in March added South Korea to the list of countries that have imposed similar export controls against Russia and are excluded from certain license requirements under the U.S.’s Russia-related foreign direct product rules (see 2202240069). The two countries also launched a new working group this month to better harmonize the countries’ export control decisions (see 2211090020).

Economy believes the U.S. will work with South Korea and other countries “over the next year or two” to further calibrate how they approach China. Those discussions will include “more clearly defining what selective decoupling means in the technology space,” she said, and “finding ways to respond in a collective fashion to Chinese economic coercion.”