KYOTO, Japan — Japanese officials said Friday they will pay close attention to U.S. trade policy following the U.S. Senate’s confirmation of Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, who has hinted he will push for further access to Japan’s market for farm products.
Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Yuji Yamamoto said the government will “carefully watch the direction of U.S. trade policy,” noting that the United States is the largest exporter of agricultural products to Japan.
During his Senate confirmation hearing in March, Lighthizer said he would list Japan as a “primary target for a place where increased access for agriculture is important.”
Asked about Lighthizer’s stance, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, the Japanese government’s top spokesman, stressed that U.S. officials engaged in economic dialogue with Japan have not so far made any specific demands for increased market access.
“We’d like to further deepen a win-win relationship,” as security and economy are the two key parts of the Japan-U.S. alliance, Suga said.
Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Hiroshige Seko told a press conference that he looks forward to meeting Lighthizer “at some point in time and having a talk.”
Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Nobuteru Ishihara refrained from directly commenting on Lighthizer’s confirmation, saying economic relations between the countries will chiefly be handled in a bilateral dialogue overseen by Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence.
Aso, who doubles as finance minister, and Pence held the first round of the dialogue in Tokyo last month. The talks followed the U.S. withdrawal earlier this year from the multilateral Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact.
Pence hinted that the dialogue might eventually result in negotiations toward a bilateral trade deal — something Japan is reluctant to pursue due to the weaker negotiating position in which it would find itself after making a series of concessions in the auto and farm sectors in the postwar period.
The U.S. withdrawal from the TPP had raised concern among some Japanese officials, who are wary of a bilateral free trade agreement with the United States due to concern that Washington could push Tokyo to boost imports of U.S. cars and agricultural produce.
— Kyodo
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