ZCZC
BCN-03
US-JAPAN-TRADE-DEFICIT
Trump focused on trade deficit with Japan: report
WASHINGTON, Sept 7, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – President Donald Trump remains
focused on reducing the US trade deficits with key economic partners, and
Japan may be the next target, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
With trade disputes in full swing with China, and as yet unresolved with
the European Union, Canada and Mexico, Trump now seems focused on making
Japan “pay,” according to the column.
Trump called James Freeman, assistant editor of The Wall Street Journal’s
editorial page, to thank him for his positive comments about the economy and
Trump’s policies, and remained focused on the gap between exports and
imports.
“It seems that he is still bothered by the terms of U.S. trade with
Japan,” Freeman wrote. “Mr. Trump described his good relations with the
Japanese leadership but then added: ‘Of course that will end as soon as I
tell them how much they have to pay.'”
The US had a deficit of $56.6 billion with Japan last year, but a surplus
in services of $13.4 billion.
And while Freeman noted, as many economists have, that trade deficits
often are a sign of “a thriving economy like the one we have now … the
President sees a problem.”
BSS/AFP/HR/0925