Japan : Us President Donald Trump said Wednesday during a second day of talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that he wants to see “free, fair and reciprocal trade” between the two countries and a whittling away of the trade deficit.
“We have a very big deficit, and we’re going to weed that down and hopefully get a balance at some point in the not-too-distant future,” Trump said. The U.S. trade deficit with Japan last year was $56.1 billion, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.
“As the prime minister knows, they have done very well with the United States. We have a very big deficit,” Trump said as the two leaders and their delegations sat across the table from each other at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago retreat in Florida.
Insisting the “relationship is a very good one,” Trump nonetheless broke with the usual diplomatic niceties, urging Abe do more to make trade “free, fair and reciprocal.”
“We have a massive deficit with Japan,” he said, pointing to passenger plane and fighter jet orders that could plug the gap before railing about unfair practices.
“The word ‘reciprocal’ is that when you have a car come in, we charge you a tax. When we have a car go through Japan, which aren’t allowed to go there, we have to take down the barriers and we have to pay the same tax,” Trump said.
“But that goes for other countries too,” he said, vowing to “weed” the deficit down.
The blunt talk will appeal to Trump’s domestic political base, which was promised a better economic deal and a tougher “America First” stance under his administration.
“This is a very exciting meeting for me, because I like this maybe the best. I love the world of finance and the world of economics, and probably, it’s where I do the best,” Trump said, playing up his business credentials.
During Abe’s two-day visit, Trump appeared to be seeking to reassure him of the pair’s close alliance as the president prepares for a historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Trump and Abe spent Wednesday morning golfing at one of Trump’s nearby courses in their latest show of “golf diplomacy,” and U.S. officials signaled Tuesday that Trump could be open to exempting Japan from new steel and aluminum tariffs that Abe opposes.
There was at least one area where he and Abe would have to agree to disagree: the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the trade agreement that Trump pulled the U.S. out of days after his inauguration but recently said he might be open to rejoining.
“While Japan and South Korea would like us to go back into TPP, I don’t like the deal for the United States,” Trump tweeted Tuesday. “Too many contingencies and no way to get out if it doesn’t work. Bilateral deals are far more efficient, profitable and better for OUR workers.”
Japan has also been questioning why it wasn’t granted exemptions to Trump’s protectionist measures on steel and aluminum when most other key U.S. allies — among them Australia, Canada, the European Union and Mexico — have been.
Abe on Tuesday praised Trump for his courage in agreeing to meet with Kim and suggested he and Trump had already come to terms on several issues.
Speaking through a interpreter during one of their meetings, Abe said that he and Trump had had “very in-depth discussions” on both North Korea and economic issues and that “on those two points” they had “successfully forged a mutual understanding.”
The two did not reveal what those agreements were, but Abe had been expected to urge Trump to exempt Japan from the tariffs and press him on the missile issue.
Larry Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council, had said earlier Tuesday that issuing Japan the waiver was “on the table,” but he declined to say what Trump would ask for in return.
Trump also pledged to help free Japanese citizens abducted and held captive by North Korea.
Trump said that he made “a promise” to Abe to help return the captives believed held by the regime of North Korean dictator Kim Jung Un.
Trump said he knows that the abductees were “one of the truly most important things on Shinzo’s mind.”
The president said he wants “to see these families reunited as soon as possible.”
Pyongyang has acknowledged abducting 13 Japanese, while Tokyo maintains North Korea abducted at least 17 in the 1970s and 1980s to train agents in Japanese language and culture to spy on South Korea.
@Japantoday
