May 29, 2019–As the U.S.-Japan continued a dialogue over trade between their two nations over the weekend, Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe put the talks with U.S. President Donald Trump in the context of a wider free-trade agenda for the region.
Specifically, Abe emphasized an Indo-Pacific strategy, which would engage the United States in stronger economic ties with the region.
“In today’s summit meeting, we welcomed the steady progress of U.S.-Japan cooperation, looking toward the creation of free and open Indo-Pacific, including the areas such as energy, digital, and infrastructure,” Abe said at a joint press conference with Trump in Tokyo on Monday. “Going forward, we will walk hand in hand and promote the cooperation for the realization of this common vision of our two nations. We will be promoting the idea forcefully.”
Since the United States dropped out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership when Trump took office, the region’s economies developed with less influence from the United States. Abe’s emphasis on the Indo-Pacific strategy could reengage U.S. leadership in the region and a free-market approach. The regional approach would include ASEAN countries as well as Australia, India, the United Kingdom, and France.
Regional Strategy in Wake of U.S. Withdraw from TPP
Even as Abe emphasized a regional approach, Trump made no apologies for exiting the previous regional approach, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. (CPPTPP, often referred to as TPP.)
“I have nothing to do with TPP. Okay? Nothing to do,” Trump said at the joint press conference. “I’m not bound by anything that anybody else signs with respect to the United States. TPP would’ve destroyed our automobile industry and many of our manufacturers. We are not involved in TPP.”
“U.S. withdrawal from the TPP inculcated deep misgivings about the U.S.’ long-term commitment to the region,” Mercy Kuo, an author and analyst of U.S.-Asian relations, said in an interview with the Japan Times last Summer. Kuo said the Indo-Pacific strategy provides a means for Japan to reengage the United States in the region and to advocate for a free and open, rule-based economic relations in the region.
US-Japan Bilateral Talks Continue
Trump, meanwhile, focused on the bilateral talks during the joint press conference.
“We are currently negotiating a bilateral trade agreement that would benefit both of our economies. Our goal is to reduce our trade deficit with Japan, remove trade barriers, and barriers of all kinds, so that U.S. exports will really have a fair and very profound footing,” Trump said.
Trump said he hopes to reach a trade deal by August. Japan’s Economic Minister Toshimitsu Motegi, meanwhile, said negotiators have only agreed to continue holding talks to narrow the difference between their positions.
Last September, the two leaders signed a joint statement outlining the goals of their trade talks.
