The U.S. and Japan are close to announcing a new bilateral trade deal, according to a Japanese official, possibly as early as Wednesday. The deal would reportedly cover autos and food imports, two of the key areas of concern between the countries.
The framework for the deal was hammered out between negotiators at both countries at the United Nations on Tuesday and could be announced following a meeting between President Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday.
“We basically shared the view on a framework and steps for boosting bilateral trade,” Japan Economic Revitalization Minister Toshimitsu Motegi told reporters, according to the Japan Times.
Motegi declined to get into specifics regarding the deal, expect to say that the countries were making “efforts to bridge the gap” and to indicate that the topics under discussion included autos and food. A source with knowledge of the talks told the Washington Examiner that an official announcement regarding the deal is expected Wednesday.
The source said the announcement was likely to be a broad framework, not a specific deal. Lowering Japan’s agriculture tariffs was likely to be one aspect of it.
The Commerce Department is overdue to release a report on whether the U.S. impose tariffs on autos and auto part imports. Japanese officials are reportedly seeking an exemption to any tariffs that would be imposed, which would hit their domestic industries hard.
In a speech Tuesday to the U.N. General Assembly, Trump said the U.S. would “systematically renegotiat[e] broken and bad trade deals” and thanked Abe, among others, for “the critical support that we will all need going forward.”
