Japan's Top Negotiator Cancels U.S. Trip for Tariff Talks

Tokyo, Aug. 28 (Jiji Press)--Japanese economic revitalization minister Ryosei Akazawa has canceled his trip to the United States for tariff negotiations between the two countries, Japanese government officials said Thursday.

Akazawa, Japan's top negotiator in tariff talks with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, was scheduled to leave for the United States on Thursday.

On Wednesday, Akazawa said that while in the United States, he would ask the Trump administration to revise its reciprocal and auto tariffs on Japan as early as possible to reflect a bilateral trade agreement reached in July.

The cancellation of his trip came after technical matters that need to be addressed by working-level officials emerged, Japanese government officials said. They added that Japanese working-level officials instead will visit the United States.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told a press conference on Thursday that Tokyo will continue to press Washington to revise its executive order on the reciprocal tariffs and issue an executive order to lower the auto tariffs as quickly as possible.

The U.S. side showed its intention to create a document on the trade agreement. Tokyo was initially negative about compiling such a document, giving priority to having Washington lower the tariffs, but eventually changed course to win U.S. pledges to do so.

Under the trade deal, the United States agreed not to impose reciprocal tariffs on Japanese products that are subject to tariffs of 15 pct or higher while raising tariff rates to 15 pct for items for which the current rates are lower than the level.

However, the United States simply added 15 pct to the current tariff rates. The U.S. side has said that it will modify the tariff rates in line with the trade agreement with Japan.

The United States also agreed to lower its tariffs on Japanese cars and auto parts to 15 pct from 27.5 pct, but the agreement has not been implemented.
END