US VP Pence kicks off Japan talks, seeking to boost trade
TOKYO: US Vice President Mike Pence kicked off talks with Japan yesterday the White House hopes will open doors for US goods and attract infrastructure investment, after seeking to reassure Washington’s key ally amid rising tensions over North Korea.
Pence first joined a working lunch with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe before meeting Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso for economic talks that the vice president said he hoped would yield a framework for further dialogue.
US President Donald Trump and Abe arranged the talks between their deputies at a Washington summit in February, soon after Trump took office.
“When President Trump agreed to this dialogue, he envisioned this as a mechanism for enhancing bilateral commercial relations between the United States and Japan, and achieving results in the near future,” Pence told Aso at the start of the talks, comments that could be construed as a warning to Tokyo not to use the dialogue to kick touchy topics down the road.
Aso in turn said US-Japan trade friction, which soured ties in the 1980s and 1990s, was a thing of the distant past and the allies were now entering an era of cooperation.
Earlier, US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross met Japan’s trade minister, Hiroshige Seko. Ross, seen as more hardline on trade, told reporters Washington was eager to increase trade ties with Tokyo through a two-way agreement.
Pence landed in Tokyo from South Korea after a trip that included a visit to the heavily fortified border separating the North and South. He described the USJapan alliance as the ‘cornerstone’ of regional security.
Pence’s 10-day tour of Asia is aimed at emphasising that US President Donald Trump wants to boost US trade in the region even though Trump has abandoned the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact.
Advocates for the TPP, negotiated by former President Barack Obama and supported by Abe, said it would have opened markets for American exports.
US business groups supported the deal but US labour unions argued it would hurt American workers.
Trump campaigned for office on an ‘America First’ platform, saying he would boost US manufacturing jobs and shrink the country’s trade deficit with countries like Japan.
Trump also vowed to renegotiate existing regional trade deals to focus on bilateral agreements.
Tokyo is wary of a two-way free trade agreement (FTA), fearing it would boost pressure to open up politically sensitive sectors such as agriculture. — Reuters