Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy

The Korea Trade Commission (KTC) under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) held its 462nd session today to review two anti-dumping cases and two patent infringement cases in international trade, and received a report on one newly initiated patent infringement investigation.

The KTC examined ongoing anti-dumping investigations launched in March this year on hot-rolled carbon and alloy steel products from Japan and China, as well as single-mode optical fiber from China. The KTC issued preliminary determinations confirming dumping in both cases and found that the dumped imports caused material injury to the Korean industry. To prevent further damage during the ongoing investigations, the KTC decided to recommend to the Korea’s economy and finance minister the imposition of provisional anti-dumping duties of between 28.16% and 33.57% for Japanese and Chinese hot-rolled products, and of 43.35% for Chinese single-mode optical fiber.

Regarding patent-related trade cases, the KTC revisited a complaint filed by Wyeth LLC concerning alleged infringement of its pneumococcal conjugate vaccine patent. Although the KTC initially ruled in February 2024 that the respondent had infringed the patent, a recent administrative court ruling overturned that decision. Accordingly, the KTC issued a redetermination in line with the court’s ruling for non-infringement.

The KTC also received a report on the initiation of a new investigation filed in June 2025 by Korean company Value Innovation Partners Co., Ltd. concerning patent infringement regarding connected electric vehicles.