In the U.S. Economic Report of the President released yesterday, Trump indicated he’s going to push for free trade agreement with Japan even though the latter has repeated rejected the idea. The document said that the administration intends to “enter into free trade agreement negotiations with Japan, and the EU, and with the U.K.”
The document also singled out Australia, who’s a member of Japan led Trans-Pacific Partnership, for having advantages over US exporters in Japan. The TPP is an 11-member FTA that Trump pulled the US out on his own will at the earliest stage of his presidency. The document also noted the FTA between Japan and the EU will put the US farmers and ranchers at a disadvantage.
It pointed out that “A number of international competitors, such as Australia, face much lower Japanese tariffs, so a free trade agreement with Japan could level the playing field for U.S. exporters”. An addition, “other tariffs and nontariff barriers stand in the way of U.S. goods and services exports to Japan.”
US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said last month that he’s going to launch trade talks with Japan in March. But given that he’s now engaged in negotiations with China (he’s travel to Beijing next week while Chinese delegate will travel to Washington the week after), the US-Japan negotiations is unlikely to start until April or even May.
