South Korea's smartphones, cars and other consumer goods are not affected by US export restrictions on Russia

According to the Korea Times, South Korean government and business sources revealed that consumer goods such as smartphones, cars, and washing machines have been exempted from US export restrictions on Russia, and the mood of South Korean companies has begun to ease.

South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said it had received the notification from the U.S. Commerce Department during an earlier meeting with officials from the department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS).

"While the US Department of Commerce has in principle applied the Foreign Direct Product Rule (FDPR) to smartphones, cars and washing machines, general mass consumer goods are considered as exceptions unless they are exported for military-related purposes," the ministry said.

The FDPR requires that products using US technology must obtain a license from the US before being exported to Russia. Since many Korean exporters use US technology and software in their products, there are concerns that this will have an impact on major Korean exporters.

Technologies in seven fields, including electronics (semiconductors), computers, communications/information security, sensors/lasers, ships, navigation/avionics, and aerospace, are subject to these restrictions.

South Korea's trade minister said: "The condition for being included in the U.S. FDPR exemption countries is to implement export controls on Russia similar to those of the international community."

The government plans to engage in dialogue with the United States as soon as possible on further strengthening export control cooperation with Russia in order to minimize the uncertainty caused by the FDPR for businesses, and to convey other key information obtained from the U.S. government to domestic businesses.