Ministerial talks on trade negotiations between Japan and the United States
The US-Japan trade negotiations were held in Washington, and after the first day, the Minister of Economic Revitalization Mogi expressed the recognition that the negotiations were coming to a close. “I am sure,” he said. “It ’s a difficult task to keep up with the challenges that vary.”
Concerning the new trade negotiations between Japan and the United States, the Minister for Economic Revitalization Mogi and the Trade Representative for Lightheiser held discussions in Washington for about five hours again from the early morning of the 22nd, following the discussion in early this month.
After this, Minister Mogi told reporters that “the issues to be addressed have been considerably narrowed down and we have agreed to accelerate the remaining discussions and work to achieve early results”.
On the other hand, Mr. Motegi said, “It is a very harsh negotiation with each other's national interests. There is no doubt that discussions are deepening, but there is still a gap that needs to be filled,” he said. I found the difficulty to walk up in a certain problem.
The Japanese government seems to be seeking concessions on the US side in order to reduce the tariff on industrial products such as automobiles and related parts in order to respond to the opening of the agricultural product market demanded by the United States. .
The two governments will hold a summit meeting in conjunction with the G7 summit in France starting on the 24th, and will again hold a summit meeting at the UN General Assembly late next month to achieve certain results. In my opinion, both Mr. Motegi and Mr. Lightheiser are going to have a discussion on the 23rd.