TOKYO
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will propose new cabinet level US-Japan talks on trade, security and macroeconomic issues, including currencies, when he meets US President Donald Trump on Friday, a Japanese government official involved in planning the summit said.
Abe heads to Washington later on Thursday hoping promises to help create US jobs and bolster Japan’s military will persuade Trump to turn down the heat on trade and currency and stand by the decades-old alliance.
“In a situation in which security relations in the Asia-Pacific region are increasingly severe, it is very important to demonstrate the unshakeable US-Japan alliance at home and abroad,” Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference.
“This is the most important theme of the US-Japan leaders summit,” he said, adding it was also vital to have constructive discussions on how to create a “win-win” relationship by further strengthening US-Japan economic ties.
Trump has lumped Japan with China and Mexico as big contributors to the US trade deficit, targeted its auto trade as “unfair” and accused Tokyo of using monetary policy to devalue its currency to boost exports.
“We use monetary easing, fiscal policy and structural reform in order to escape from deflation. We don’t engage in competitive currency devaluation or target specific levels,” Masahiko Shibayama, an adviser to the premier, told Reuters.
“We’ll explain based on the fact that Japanese automakers are contributing to US jobs through their local subsidiaries.” During his election campaign, Trump complained Tokyo was not sharing enough of the cost of the US security umbrella although his defence secretary, Jim Mattis, assured Japan the alliance was firm when he visited the country last week.
Abe, who will be accompanied by Finance Minister Taro Aso and Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, will bring a package of steps Tokyo says could create 700,000 US jobs through private-public investment in infrastructure such as high-speed trains, government sources say.
Trump, who abandoned the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact championed by his predecessor Barack Obama and Abe as a counterweight to a rising China, has made clear he wants a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) with Tokyo instead.
Playing for time?
Abe has left the door open to FTA talks but Japanese officials worry such negotiations would boost pressure on politically sensitive sectors such as agriculture while yielding few economic benefits for Japan.
The new cabinet level talks, the government official told Reuters, would be a way of buying time rather than opening FTA talks at an early stage.
Tokyo and Washington already have a cabinet-level mechanism for security talks, the so-called “2-plus-2” meetings of defence and foreign ministers.
The new economic framework will be headed by Aso, who is also deputy prime minister, and US Vice President Mike Pence, and would address a range of issues, with a focus on crafting trade policies and measures to bolster US employment, said a report in the Nikkei business daily.
Abe is likely to propose crafting highly liberal rules for trade and investment in areas such as intellectual property protection, rules of origin, regulations on state-owned companies and e-commerce, the Nikkei said.
Japan firm drops Mexico plant plan over Trump warnings
TOKYO: A top Japanese company said Thursday it had dropped Mexico as a possible location for a new auto parts factory after Donald Trump rapped Toyota over a plant in the country — and economists warned more firms could follow suit. The decision by Nikkei 225-listed Nisshinbo Holdings marked the first time a Japanese company has publicly abandoned a Mexican facility in response to the new US president’s protectionist outbursts, the Nikkei business daily said Thursday.
Mexico was among the locations being considered for Nisshinbo’s vehicle brake parts plant, reportedly worth up to 10 billion yen ($89 million). Company spokesman Kiyohiro Kida said Mexico had been at the top of the list for possible sites.
The firm is a leading maker of friction-reducing brake parts with about a 15 per cent share of the global market.
— AFP
