Financial Services Not on Agenda for Japan-U.S. Trade Talks: Motegi

October 12, 2018

Tokyo- Financial services will not be covered in forthcoming trade negotiations between Japan and the United States, Japanese Economic Revitalization Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said Friday.

"We don't expect that such issues will be covered as the negotiations are likely to take a lot of time," Motegi told a press conference.

Motegi added that there is a consensus between Japan and the United States on the range of issues to be discussed in the talks, which the Japanese side insists are aimed at concluding a TAG (trade agreement on goods).

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to launch the new trade talks at their summit late last month.

Despite this, the expression TAG was not mentioned in the English version of a joint statement issued after the summit, but was included in the Japanese version, giving rise to speculation in Japan that the envisioned deal could actually be a broad-based bilateral free trade agreement that the U.S. side is believed to be eager to conclude with Japan.

Downplaying such views, Motegi claimed, "It is not a difference (in understanding), but is a matter of what to call it." Jiji Press