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© Thomson Reuters 2018.Japan, U.S. agree to start talks on bilateral trade deal, shelving auto tariffs
By Steve Holland and David Lawder NEW YORK©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
28 Comments
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Kobe White Bar Owner
Odd handshake for an odd couple.
Schopenhauer
After all, Japan has to go along with U.S. If it is not Abe, Japan could not will not do well with Trump. Trump is the most unique president in American history.
Wallace Fred
Lol and round and round we go. Doing this decimates ldps 'voting' base. Nothing to see here folks.
SaikoPhysco
I think Trump will get some definitive concessions this time. Japan will sweeten the pot and Trump will take the deal.... he needs to because it will put more pressure on China.
坂野Vinicius
I work in the auto parts industry in Japan. And I don't know much about this free trade agreements. Does anyone think my job could be jeopardized?
Aly Rustom
Abe's in hot water
thepersoniamnow
Trump keeps ripping up the entire worlds trade playbooks!
Now that he’s reconfigured it all, his future re election success will probably depend on it.
If America ends up better off fiscally with his trade wars then his already large base who’ll support him regardless will only grow.
starpunk
If I were PM Abe I wouldn't want to discuss anything with Trump. I wouldn't want to talk with him. I wouldn't even want to be in the same building as him. I'd have nothing to say to him - nothing positive, that is.
fxgai
It's funny how in the Japanese media they are saying that it's not an FTA (Free Trade Agreement) but a TAG (Trade Agreement on Goods).
Didn't Abe just tell the UN that Japan was going to go for Free Trade?
Mizuame
fxgai, I think this is a technical issue to do with the terminology. Under WTO rules, the term "FTA" can only be used for an agreement that covers "substantially all trade" between the parties. In this case, certainly Abe is advocating free trade, but he is only talking about the goods sector, esp. automobiles. In his press conference he was clear about ruling out agriculture (para 8 above). This is vital for Japanese farmers, and the Government makes sure that the media reports it right.
Wakarimasen
It will never be a FREE trade deal. Just a trade deals with all sorts of tariffs on each party's protected or politically sensitive products.
seanwd20
It IS an FTA, but the Japanese government are saying it’s a TAG to avoid the impression they surrendered completely to Trump’s demands.
fxgai
Is it? I thought it hasn't been concluded yet.
Yes domestically they are calling it a TAG to appease the vested interests in the agriculture sector, while to the US, UN and foreign media they are saying otherwise.
Where there is double-talk I have no confidence. The Japanese side is probably hoping to buy time until Trump is a lame duck or completely out of office. Trump for his part has set a low bar though, claiming that any sort of agreement will be an improvement.
I won't be expecting changes any time as a result of this.
seanwd20
Well, Trump isn't stupid. He will impose auto tariffs on Japanese cars if he doesn't see quick results from the trade negotiations. That was the agreement the two countries made. If Japan stalls the talks again, they are only asking for trouble.
gogogo
Trump's face "I say one thing to your face and another on twitter tonight"
ThePBot
Yes he is. Your whole reasoning of why you think he isn't is actually the proof of why he is.
JeffLee
I wonder if Japan and the EU would have taken such a stand if Trump had not been president.
gokai_wo_maneku
The main non-tariff barrier is US companies laziness. Getting into the Japanese market is not easy, but many US companies have succeeded in a big way. They did their homework. How about more US companies doing the same. Especially US automakers.
Disillusioned
So, Abe managed to worm his way out of the auto tariffs. "Life's like smoking a joiont. The harder you suck the higher you get!"
Slickdrifter
Make Japanese cars great again!
So I wonder when we will see the new Supra now that Toyota will not have shift funds around out of TRD diversion. Cause the 86 is a joke!
oyatoi
It would pay Japan to be very careful with where this is going. Repositioning himself as the poster child of free trade is all well and good. But it wouldn’t have happened were it not for Trump single handedly putting all the Asian mercantile regimes on notice and, even more to the point, forcing them to acknowledge, that lopsided trade imbalances are unsustainable and that they can no longer take American largesse for granted. If this Sino-Nippon pow wow is merely a delaying strategy that’s all about stringing him along with vague promises they have no intention of ever implementing, in the hope that Trump will inevitably be succeeded by someone amenable to going back to the way things were, such bad faith will cost Japan dearly. Time for both China and Japan to bear the unbearable and accept the unacceptable.
theeastisred
You don't necessarily expect Abe to be comfortable shaking hands because it's not the custom in Japan and Japanese people often have trouble with it. But Trump shows us yet again here that he has no idea how to shake hands - always has his own palm facing up in some kind of attempted power play instead of perpendicular to the floor in a respectfully neutral manner.
Wallace Fred
So much for 'japanese are soooo honest'¹ masters at duplicity more like
Goodlucktoyou
So temporary save Toyota bosses but throw the farmers under the steamroller