Pence May Visit Japan in Nov. for Economic Dialogue

October 5, 2018

Tokyo- U.S. Vice President Mike Pence may visit Japan in November to meet with its deputy prime minister and finance minister, Taro Aso, for the third round of a bilateral economic dialogue, it was learned Friday.

Expected agenda items include a possible trade agreement on goods, or TAG, between the two countries, Japanese government sources said.

Pence may also hold a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, according to the sources.

At a press conference on Friday, Aso said, "No meeting schedules have been fixed."

A TAG would aim to eliminate or reduce tariffs on a broad range of products, including agricultural and industrial goods.

At their meeting in New York on Sept. 26, Abe and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to launch negotiations on the potential Japan-U.S. TAG. The talks are expected to start early next year.

Meanwhile, the Japan-U.S. economic dialogue is a framework of discussions on strengthening the two countries' overall economic relations partly through the formulation of trade and investment rules.

The first meeting under the dialogue framework took place in Tokyo in April 2017 and the second meeting in Washington in October the same year. Jiji Press