Japan

Japan remains one of the few major non-U.S. economies that has not signed up to the European Union-led stopgap appeals arrangement at the World Trade Organization, arguing on Wednesday that any interim plan must be established with an eye toward a long-term solution.

The U.S. on Monday backed Japan’s invocation of the World Trade Organization national security exception in a dispute with South Korea over semiconductor materials. The U.S. has cited the same provision in challenges to its steel and aluminum tariffs.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Japanese Foreign Affairs Minister Toshimitsu Motegi this week affirmed a joint hope to reform the World Trade Organization’s dispute settlement system and forge new e-commerce rules, according to USTR.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, like all other federal agencies, is adapting to life during a global pandemic that has radically overhauled how many work. But how, exactly, the new reality is affecting its operations is not known -- and USTR isn’t saying. 

President Trump this week decided not to impose Section 232 duties on titanium sponge imports despite the Commerce Department’s determination that they threaten national security. 

“We expect the president to sign the implementing proclamation for the United States next week,” USTR Lighthizer said in a statement.

In securing an initial deal with Japan, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative did not meet several of the negotiating objectives required by law, according to an advisory group that includes representatives from states, counties and municipal governments.

This week’s move allows the upper house time to ratify the deal before the Diet session ends on Dec. 9.