The Japan-U.S. ministerial-level trade talks scheduled on Monday and the summit talks on Wednesday are expected to focus on how far Japan can compromise regarding opening its markets for specific sectors such as automobiles and agricultural products while avoiding new tariffs — currently mulled by Washington — on cars from Japan.
Tokyo wants to discuss what Prime Minister Shinzo Abe describes as “a grand direction” to promote bilateral trade. He expressed Thursday his strong desire to deter any form of additional tariffs on cars from Japan under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, a U.S. law. “I want to reach an agreement [with Washington] so that [such tariffs] will not be imposed,” Abe said during an NHK program shortly after winning the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s presidential election.
U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the Commerce Department in May to consider measures to impose new tariffs on imported cars, reasoning that an increase in foreign car imports will weaken the domestic car industry and thereby threaten the national security of the United States. A probe by the department is under way to examine the necessity for such tariffs.
Japan’s automobile industry has a significant presence in bilateral trade. According to the U.S. Commerce Department, the U.S. trade deficit in goods with Japan in 2017 was $68.8 billion (about ¥7.7 trillion). Automobiles and automobile parts accounted for over 70 percent of the figure.
Concerns persist that Washington will demand concessions from Tokyo in the auto sector by using tariffs on imported cars as a bargaining chip.