U.S.-Japan Trade Talks Called Frank but Not Very Productive
Japanese Foreign Minister Tsutomu Hata and U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor said they held fruitful talks Friday but fell painfully short of resuming formal trade negotiations.
“We had a good, thorough and positive discussion,” Kantor told reporters after the two-hour breakfast meeting. “Our differences on trade will not be allowed to spill over into other aspects of the most important bilateral relationship.”
Hata concurred, saying, “We had useful, frank talks on how to stimulate U.S.-Japan economic relations.”
Useful and frank--but not especially productive.
While Kantor said progress had been made, he gave no details and set no date to reopen the trade talks, which crashed to a halt in February after a failed summit in Washington.
“We are seeking a common ground as the basis to begin re-engagement of the framework talks,” said Kantor, who is here to sign the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade global treaty.
Transpacific friction has mounted along with Japan’s trade surplus, which totals $60 billion with the United States alone.
Both sides agree on the basics--that the surplus must fall and Tokyo’s imports rise--but they have hit a wall over exactly how to get there.
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