U. S. President Donald Trump, charging “Japan has been winning” on trade in recent decades, said he will push for more reciprocal trade with Washington’s cl
U. S. President Donald Trump, charging “Japan has been winning” on trade in recent decades, said he will push for more reciprocal trade with Washington’s close U. S. ally- but in a friendly way.
Trump was speaking in Tokyo on the second day of a 12-day Asian trip expected to be dominated by North Korea and trade.
“The United States has suffered massive trade deficits at the hands of Japan for many, many years,” Trump said at the start of a meeting with Japanese and U. S. business leaders.
Trump praised Japan for buying U. S. military hardware, which he said is the “best military equipment in the world,” but added that “many millions of cars are sold by Japan into the United States, whereas virtually no cars go from the United States into Japan.”
“We want free and reciprocal trade but right now our trade with Japan is not free and it’s not reciprocal and I know it will be and we’ve started the process,” Trump said. “I have no doubt that it will be done in a quick and very friendly manner.”
Trump also said Washington wants to make the United States the most attractive place to hire, invest and grow.
Japan had a $69 billion trade surplus with the United States last year, according to the Treasury Department. The United States was Japan’s second biggest trade partner after China, while Japan was the United States’ fourth largest goods export market in 2016.
Japanese officials have countered U. S. trade complaints by noting Tokyo accounts for a much smaller slice of the U. S. deficit than in the past, while China’s imbalance is bigger.
Trump met Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sunday for golf, lunch and dinner, and is set to hold a more formal summit with Abe later Monday.
