Three countries have come together to respond to Donald Trump's upcoming tariffs. A social media account affiliated with Chinese state media said on Monday that China, Japan and South Korea have held their first economic discussions for five years as they brace against the US President.
They reportedly spoke on Sunday and hope to facilitate regional trade across Asia. However, Seoul called the reports of a discussion "somewhat exaggerated" and Tokyo said there were no such talks.
Yuyuan Tantian, an account linked to China Central Television, said in a post on Weibo that Japan and South Korea are seeking to import semiconductor raw materials from China. Meanwhile, Beijing is interested in purchasing chip products from Japan and South Korea.
The post added that all three nations agreed to engage in more dialogue on export controls to strengthen their supply chain cooperation. However, both South Korea and Japan have played down reports of a discussion.
Japan's Trade Minister Yoji Muto said the meeting was just an exchange of views. He said there was a meeting of trade ministers but no such cooperative discussion took place.
The trade ministers did agree to speed up talks on a South Korea-Japan-China free trade agreement during the meeting on Sunday, it has been confirmed. They hope the deal will promote "regional and global trade".
a South Korean trade ministry spokesperson said: "The three countries exchanged views on the global trade environment, and as you can see in the joint statement, they shared their understanding of the need to continue economic and trade cooperation."
The meeting comes ahead of Trump's planned announcement of more tariffs on Wednesday. He described it as "liberation day" and said he will unveil any tariffs on any country that “treats the US unfairly”.
China, Japan and South Korea are all major trading partners with the US. However, they have recently disagreed over issues including territorial disputes and Japan's release of wastewater from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant.
