Japan, U.S. agree to discuss digital trade

April 17, 2019

Washington--In their first round of talks on concluding a new bilateral trade agreement that ended Tuesday, Japan and the United States agreed to discuss digital trade such as e-commerce.

Japanese Economic Revitalization Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer also kicked off negotiations on eliminating and reducing tariffs on goods, including agricultural products and automobiles.

Fierce bargaining is expected in forthcoming rounds talks amid calls in the United States for Japan to open its broad services market and introduce a currency provision under the envisaged trade agreement to ban Tokyo from guiding the yen lower to boost exports.

"We got off to a good start," Motegi told a news conference following the two-day meeting in Washington. "We will accelerate discussions in order to accomplish results at an early timing."

He expressed a willingness to meet Lighthizer again next week, with the aim of making a report to a Japan-U.S. summit to be held late April.

According to a joint statement issued by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Donald Trump last September, the bilateral trade negotiations will cover not only goods trade but also some services-sector issues that are expected to be resolved swiftly.

In a statement released Tuesday, the Office of the USTR said, "The two officials reaffirmed their shared goal of achieving substantive results on trade in furtherance of the joint statement."

Motegi suggested that the negotiations will chiefly cover goods trade for the time being.

During the latest round of talks, Japan explained its position that the levels of trade liberalization for farm products should not exceed those under the Trans-Pacific Partnership multilateral free trade agreement, from which the United States has withdrawn, Japanese officials said.

Tokyo also underscored its intention to reject any U.S. curbs on the amount of automobile imports from Japan and additional tariffs on Japanese vehicles.

For its part, the United States strongly requested a reduction in its trade deficit with Japan, according to the officials. Japan agreed to the U.S. proposal that following talks on goods trade, the two countries will negotiate digital trade, such as e-commerce and flows of data.

On the proposed currency provision, Motegi told Lighthizer that Japan does not want to cover the issue in the trade talks. Jiji Press