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
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.
