Japan-U.S. trade accord announced abruptly

August 26, 2019

Biarritz, France--Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Donald Trump announced a basic trade agreement at a hastily arranged joint news conference in Biarritz, southwestern France, Sunday that was not attended by reporters accompanying Abe.

The announcement came about three hours after Abe and Trump held talks on the sidelines of a summit of the Group of Seven major industrial countries.

Initially, Japanese economic revitalization minister Toshimitsu Motegi was scheduled to explain the results of Japan-U.S. trade negotiations to Japanese reporters after the bilateral summit.

The U.S. side, however, proposed holding a joint press conference, saying the agreement is a good story to tell, according to sources familiar with the situation.

The joint press conference took place with the presence of only reporters accompanying the U.S. president. Reporters accompanying Abe were not present because they were not informed of the press conference plan in advance.

Japanese Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasutoshi Nishimura apologized to the Japanese reporters for the government's failure to provide them with advance notice.

Meanwhile, Japan's Foreign Ministry initially explained that Abe and Trump held two rounds of talks Sunday. But it later said that the second meeting was merely to prepare for the joint press conference. Jiji Press