Japan may impose extra duties on dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips produced by Hynix Semiconductor Inc of South Korea starting this summer, a Japanese newspaper said on Sunday.
The extra tariffs, probably between 20 and 40 percent, would follow complaints that the company is using government subsidies to sell its products at artificially low prices, the Yomiuri Shimbun said, without citing sources.
Price competition with Asian companies has already forced some domestic semiconductor makers to close down, the paper said.
World Trade Organisation rules permitted tariffs to counter subsidies to foreign firms by their government, the Yomiuri said. This would be the first time Japan has exercised its right to impose them.
Hynix ranked third in the global DRAM chip market in 2002, after South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co and Micron Technology Inc of the United States, the paper said.
The United States and the European Union have already imposed extra duties of between 30 and 45 percent on DRAM chipes from Hynix Semiconductor, the Yomiuri said.