Japan: Trade issues left for later - Nomura
The two days of US-Japan summit talks on 17-18 April came to a close with the joint press conference that the leaders of the two countries gave on the 18th and it seems Japan successfully avoided tough demands from the US side, but risks remain, according to Takashi Miwa, Research Analyst at Nomura.
Key Quotes
“Much of the discussion centered on North Korea, and we credit pre-negotiation from the Japan side with keeping blunt and hardline demands on trade issues from US President Donald Trump out of the discussion. We suspect that the pre-negotiations included a concession from Japan in the form of an agreement to procure more weapons from the US, as suggested by President Trump's comment that the US hopes to sell more defense technology to Japan.”
“On trade issues, the two sides agreed to turn the discussions over to Toshimitsu Motegi, Japan's Cabinet minister in charge of economic revitalization, and Robert Lighthizer, the US trade representative. However, Prime Minister Abe commented that while he understands that the US is strongly interested in a bilateral agreement, Japan sees the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) as the best solution. This shows that there is still some distance between the two sides, and that on trade issues, they have effectively simply kicked the can down the road.”