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US-Japan trade deal progress likely in ‘months’: US official
WASHINGTON, June 20, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Tokyo understands Washington’s
desire to negotiate greater access to the Japanese market and efforts to
reach a new trade agreement should bear fruit soon, a top US trade official
said Wednesday.
The testimony by US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer comes a week
before US officials are due to meet Japanese counterparts on the sidelines of
the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan, according to Lighthizer.
He told a House of Representatives panel on taxes and trade duties that US
farmers are now at a disadvantage in exporting to Japan, which has entered a
new trade agreement with Europe and is also party to the Transpacific
Partnership — giving Australian and Canadian exporters an advantage over the
United States.
President Donald Trump withdrew from the TPP on his first full day in
office in 2017, claiming it would have led to job losses and further erosion
of US manufacturing.
“We understand the nature of this problem and we have to resolve it
because if we don’t, these farmers are gonna lose that market, because of
nothing they did, just because Japan gave more access to somebody else, and
they may never get those markets back,” Lighthizer said in a second
consecutive day of congressional testimony.
“And the Japanese understand completely our position and I’m hopeful that
we’ll have something resolved in the weeks and months ahead, but there’s an
enormous amount of urgency.”
During a meeting in Tokyo last month with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo
Abe, Trump complained of the sizeable US trade deficit with Japan, which
amounted to $67.2 billion in goods last year.
Trump expects to meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the G20 summit
this week in an effort to rescue trade negotiations that appeared to collapse
last month.
American officials accused their Chinese counterparts of backsliding on
commitments made in the talks. Lighthizer said he was hopeful the talks could
resume productively.
“My speculation is that some forces in China decided that they had gone
too far, went out beyond their mandate,” he said.
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– A ‘catastrophe’ lurks –
“I have trust and complete good faith in the people that I’m dealing
with… My hope is we can get back on track.”
If not, trade relations face the prospect of deteriorating drastically.
Lighthizer’s office is currently holding public hearings on plans to
impose steep tariffs on $300 billion more in Chinese imports, or all
remaining Chinese goods not currently subject to punitive duties.
He also said the United States could respond “very strongly” to French
plans to adopt a digital services tax that Lighthizer claimed could hit
American companies “disproportionately.”
French lawmakers have proposed a three percent tax on gross income, rather
than profits, from certain digital businesses.
“I believe the president will respond strongly to that,” Lighthizer said.
The United States also hopes to resolve trade differences with India after
terminating New Delhi’s duty-free access benefits under the Generalized
System of Preferences — a measure that took effect this month, according to
Lighthizer.
US officials accuse India of placing improper barriers to that country’s
market on US goods.
“It’s a massive economy. It’s only gonna get bigger and it’s a great
opportunity for a lot of American farmers and businesses,” he said.
“Having said that, we have a series of problems with them… I have a new
counterpart and I will talk with him in the next few days.”
Lighthizer is also currently in fraught talks with Democrats in the House
of Representatives, who say in principle they favor approving the new United
States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement but have reservations over enforcement
of Mexican labor laws, among other qualms.
Lighthizer has pledged to help address these concerns but warned against
excessive delays, saying the United States risks a “catastrophe” if the
treaty is not ratified and that thousands of jobs are at stake.
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