Japan’s export curbs on tech materials bound for South Korea will formally be discussed at the general assembly of the World Trade Organization next week as Seoul hopes to highlight the potential ramifications on the global value chain from the trade faceoff between the two technology powerhouses.

The Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy said Sunday that Tokyo’s export restrictions of semiconductor and display materials to Korea have been taken up as a formal agenda item at the WTO’s general council meeting on July 23-24.

Korea had first raised the issue at the international body last Thursday, two days after publicly condemning Japan’s move at the WTO’s council for trade in goods.

All 164 members take part in the general council, which is the WTO’s top decision-making body aside from the ministerial conferences that take place every two years. Paik Ji-ah, Korea’s ambassador in Geneva, will rally international support by calling attention to the unfairness of Japan’s export curbs and demanding their immediate withdrawal.

On July 4, Japan tightened restrictions on the exports of three materials vital in making semiconductors and display screens, requiring government approval each time these materials are shipped to Korea. It said the curbs were put in place due to Korea’s “inadequate management” of the sensitive materials, which can be used for military purposes.

But the move has been denounced by Korean officials as “retaliation” against recent court rulings in Korea that ordered Japanese companies to compensate former forced Korean workers during World War II. Japan claims all colonial and wartime claims were resolved in the 1965 treaty that normalized bilateral ties between the two countries.

With limited options at its disposal, Korea has warned it could file a WTO suit against Japan, despite the prospects of engaging in a drawn-out battle. The two countries would first be required to resolve the problem through consultation. If that fails, the case would be passed down to the WTO’s dispute panel, a process that generally takes one to two years. In the case of Japan’s complaint against Korea’s import restrictions of Japanese seafood in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, the panel took about four years to issue a final ruling.

By Jung Wook and Kim Hyo-jin

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