Japan

USTR is pointing to a “consultation system” outlined in the text of the new U.S.-Japan Trade Agreement as a “starting point” for how the two parties can address disputes.

The digital trade deal struck between Washington and Tokyo includes first-ever language on information and communication technology goods, taxation and security exceptions, according to the text of the agreement released on Monday.

U.S. business and agriculture groups lauded the trade deal the U.S. and Japan announced this week and urged the two countries to move forward with the next stage of negotiations.

President Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday inked a first-stage trade agreement on market access and an executive agreement on digital trade.

The Trump administration should abandon its threat of Section 232 tariffs on Japanese autos and auto parts, which are crucial to the Japanese economy, to secure a deal with Tokyo, Senate Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said on Tuesday.

Five House Democrats say they have learned “at the 11th hour” that a nascent U.S. trade deal with Japan will offer U.S. dairy farmers “inferior market access.”

President Trump plans to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe next Wednesday in New York City, White House National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow said on Tuesday, suggesting the two could release more details then on the interim deal recently formalized by the two countries.

South Korea has challenged export restrictions imposed on Seoul by Japan at the World Trade Organization, escalating an ongoing trade tension between two major U.S. trading partners while the U.S. largely sticks to the sidelines.

President Trump plans to use a mechanism allowed under a 2015 trade law to enter into a deal on “tariff barriers” with Japan, he told Congress on Monday, adding that the two sides would also sign an “executive agreement” on digital trade.