Japan, U.S. remain apart over farm, auto trade

May 22, 2019

Washington--The Japanese and U.S. governments remained apart over agricultural, automotive and other trade issues at a working-level session in Washington on Tuesday, ahead of a bilateral summit in Tokyo on Monday.

The Japanese side asked the United States to eliminate its automotive tariffs promptly, but the U.S. side showed its reluctance to accept the request, according to informed sources.

Meanwhile, the U.S. side reiterated its demand that the Japanese agricultural market be liberalized soon.

The Japanese side expressed its position of limiting any market liberalization steps to those under the Trans-Pacific Partnership pact, and claimed that it would take time to draw up a trade agreement that covers all of Japan's some 9,000 trade items.

"Japan is on the offensive over automobiles, while the United States is keen on Japanese agricultural goods," senior Japanese trade official Kazuhisa Shibuya told reporters following the working-level session.

"Both sides can't reach any agreement that is unlikely to gain understanding at home," Shibuya said.

He noted that Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jeff Gerrish admitted that both sides remain quite apart from each other.

In late April, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to conclude bilateral trade negotiations promptly.

Earlier this month, Trump deemed an increasing number of imported vehicles in his country, including those from Japan, to pose a national security threat, and ordered the USTR to draw up measures to respond to the situation within a half year.

The working-level session saw no talks on a possible U.S. import restriction on Japanese vehicles in quantity, according to Shibuya. Jiji Press