The Japanese economy minister said that the trade talks with the United States were “Frank and Good”. The meeting came after the decision of the Prime Minister Shinzo Abe together with the United States president Donald Trump of holding talks in September.
“We had a frank and very good exchange of views on trade issues,” he told reporters while declining to provide more details.
The trade tensions between the United States and Japan began with President Donald Trump’s unhappiness with the trade deficit with Japan, which has a trade surplus of about $68 billion most of it due to Japanese Auto Exports. This behavior is consistent with the new U.S. foreign trade policy, which is seeking to change the United States Balance of Trade.
In order to mend fences the U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer and the Japanese economy minister Toshimitsu Motegi held a three-hour meeting that was centered on goods. They both reached an agreement that would be centered on them and not a more general free trade agreement that would include services and investments that Japan doesn’t deem as desirable.
The agreement must include a currency provision in order to avoid currency manipulation, as it was suggested by the U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, however the Japanese representative said that those matters should be dealt with in another instance, between the finance ministers.
More trade talks are on the horizon, following the framework provided by the joint statement that both countries issued last year. The framework draws lines over sensitive issues for both countries, like the Auto Industry or the Agricultural sector for the Japanese.
The next meeting is on Tuesday and more details about the agreement are expected afterwards. The United States President Donald Trump and the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are expected to meet in late April and hold a meeting where they would tackle many sensitive issues, like Japanese-American trade and North Korea.