East Seaweed vs Seaweed of Japan

[Mulboyne]

Yonhap via Yahoo: S. Korea, Japan Discuss Seaweed Import Dispute
South Korea and Japan held talks in Geneva to untangle a dispute surrounding dried laver, a salty seaweed used for wrapping rice, participants here said Friday. The talks, the second of their kind, come after Seoul filed a motion with the World Trade Organization (WTO) Dec. 1 asking that Japan's import quota system for the product, known in Korea as "gim," be scrapped because it distorts trading rules...Experts following the talks said Seoul instigated the motion after Tokyo announced it will allow Chinese laver to enter its market without raising its overall quota, a move that will almost certainly translate as a diminished market share for South Korean exporters given their previous monopoly.
As of 2004, the South was allowed to export 2.5 million sok of laver to Japan, or 2.4 percent of its neighbor's domestic market - representing a three-fold increase from five years earlier. One sok is equal to 100 sheets of laver, each about the size of a sheet of A4 paper. Seoul expects the global trading body to support its position since the quota is a "uniquely" Japanese protectionist policy.

[Mulboyne]

Kyodo: Japan may raise limit on imports of laver seaweed by 70%
Japan plans to raise the limit on imports of laver seaweed in 2005 by about 70 percent from a year earlier, government officials said Thursday. The decision is apparently aimed at averting criticism from South Korea, which says Japan's system of limiting the volume of laver seaweed imports to a certain level violates the World Trade Organization treaty. Tokyo does not plan to raise the limit any further after this, the officials said. The increase would be "the highest level that is explainable to domestic producers," said one of the officials at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

[Mulboyne]

Kyodo: WTO to set up settlement panel for Japan-S. Korea seaweed row
The World Trade Organization on Monday decided to create a dispute settlement panel over the row between Japan and South Korea over laver seaweed trade, WTO officials said. South Korea late last year filed a complaint with the WTO regarding Japan's "nori" seaweed trade policy, claiming its import quota on the product violates trade rules set by the WTO.

[omae mona]

Cool! That Korean stuff is tasty. Listen up sillygirl - it's so salty you can barely taste the seaweed flavor. You should give it a shot.