SEOUL, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's import of Japanese beer tumbled in recent months on the campaign here to boycott Japanese products, caused by a trade spat between the two countries, Yonhap news agency said Monday citing customs office data.
In terms of value, import of Japanese beer plunged to 223,000 U.S. dollars in August from 7,566,000 dollars a year earlier. The Japanese beer import was tallied at 4,342,000 dollars in July.
Japanese beer had ranked first among the imported beers from January 2009 to June this year, but the ranking fell to third in July and 13th in August amid the ongoing trade feud between South Korea and Japan.
Japan tightened regulation in July on its export to South Korea of three materials vital to make memory chips and display panels, the mainstay of the South Korean export.
In August, Japan dropped South Korea off its whitelist of trusted trading partners that are given preferential export procedure. In response, Seoul also removed Tokyo from its whitelist of trusted export partners.
Japan's export curbs came after the South Korean top court's ruling that ordered some of Japanese firms to compensate the South Korean victims who were forced by Imperial Japan into hard labor without pay during World War II. The Korean Peninsula was colonized by Japan from 1910 to 1945.
In August, import of Chinese beer reached 4,621,000 dollars, ranking first among the imported beers. It was followed by the Dutch beer at 4,302,000 dollars and the Belgian beer at 3,770,000 dollars each.
