The Japanese government is in a flap after the World Trade Organization told it to stop taxing Hynix's DRAM chips by September 1.

The South Korean government complained to the World Trade Organization that Japan was illegally taxing chips made by Hynix. Japan wanted to keep the tax until next year, but the WTO did not buy that plan. South Korea's foreign ministry said in a statement today it hopes Japan will scrap the tariff within the September 1 deadline.

The tariff was brought in after Japanese DRAM makers, Elpida Memory and Micron, moaned that Hynix was subsidized by Government backed loans. As it turned out, there was no proof of this.