WASHINGTON \u2014
U. S. President Donald Trump will seek quick progress toward a bilateral trade agreement with Japan in place of a broader Asia-Pacific deal he abandoned this week, when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visits the White House next month, an official in the Trump administration said on Thursday.
\u201cI see Abe\u2019s visit being more about finding a follow-through, a replacement for TPP,\u201d said the official, referring to the Trans-Pacific Partnership that Trump ditched on Monday.
\u201cGiven the domestic political capital (Abe\u2019s) expended on TPP, there\u2019s going to be an effort to work with him on a follow-on,\u201d the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Trump, who took office last Friday, reiterated on Thursday he would strike numerous bilateral deals, as opposed to multilateral accords like the TPP. He said they would include clauses to allow a 30-day termination notice if the United States was not treated fairly.
The TPP, which took years to negotiate among 12 countries, has often been described as being, at its core, a deal between the United States and Japan, the world\u2019s largest and third-largest economies respectively.
Trump called it bad for American jobs, but proponents worry that abandoning the project could further strengthen China\u2019s economic hand in the region.
Japanese media have said Abe is expected to meet Trump in Washington on Feb 10, although no official announcement has been made as to the timing of the trip.
The administration official said it \u201cwas clear what the outlines and the contours\u201d of a deal with Japan would be but did not go into details. \u201cI don\u2019t know if there needs to be this protracted long-term negotiation, and there may be some initial steps that are implemented prior to an official Free Trade Agreement,\u201d he said.
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty clear what the problems are on the trade side and it\u2019s pretty clear what the opportunities are. I don\u2019t think it\u2019ll be particularly difficult to get some movement on a couple of different aspects of the trade side relatively quickly.\u201d
The White House declined comment on the official\u2019s remarks. \u201cWe look forward to Prime Minister Abe\u2019s upcoming visit and a productive relationship with Japan,\u201d a White House official said.
Abe has touted TPP as an engine of economic reform and a counter-weight to a rising China, but Japan\u2019s Kyodo news agency said he appeared on Thursday to signal an openness to working out a free trade or economic partnership agreement with the United States.
\u201cWe will appeal (to the U. S. administration) on the TPP, but that doesn\u2019t mean we absolutely can\u2019t also (sign) an EPA or FTA,\u201d Kyodo quoted Abe as saying in the Japanese Diet.
It said Abe also suggested Japan would advocate retaining some form of tariffs on rice and four other key agricultural products in any trade negotiations with the United States.
\u201cWe will thoroughly protect what we should protect\u2026I want to carry out bilateral negotiations properly, based on the thinking that agriculture is the foundation of this country,\u201d it quoted him as saying.
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