TOKYO: The Japanese and Chinese governments held the first meeting of their dialogue on export controls in Tokyo on Jan. 17, the Japanese trade ministry said Thursday.

The meeting was attended by bureau-chief-level officials from the Japanese ministry and China’s Ministry of Commerce.

The Japanese side is believed to have expressed its position that international rules should be observed, as China has tightened its export controls including on gallium, which is used in semiconductors.

The Chinese ministry said the same day that the two countries had discussed matters of concern and agreed to continue the dialogue while vowing to increase transparency in export controls and preventing them from becoming an obstacle to normal trade.

The intergovernmental dialogue was launched under an agreement reached at a meeting of the two countries’ economy ministers in San Francisco last November.

Meanwhile, it was revealed at a meeting of a Japanese business delegation and the Chinese ministry on Thursday that a permit to export graphite, which is used in lithium-ion batteries, to Japanese companies had been issued.

JIJI Press