The United States and Japan agreed to work together against the rising threat from North Korea but failed to bridge differences on thorny issues of trade during economic talks on Monday, with Tokyo skirting US demands to negotiate a two-way trade deal. But the United States and Japan remained at logger-heads on how to frame future trade talks with Tokyo pushing back against US calls, made by Pence, to open up talks for a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA). Japan explained how its companies were creating US jobs through investment and argued against focusing narrowly on the bilateral trade deficit, the official said. The Trump administration has said it would like to negotiate a two-way trade deal to give US goods more access to Japanese markets. Aso had hoped to defuse calls for a bilateral trade deal by cooperating on infrastructure and energy, for fear a two-way trade agreement would expose it to stronger US pressure to open up its politically sensitive farm produce markets.

Source: Dhaka Tribune October 17, 2017 01:07 UTC