U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to permanently pull the United States out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) on January 23, aiming at pursuing bilateral free trade opportunities with U.S. allies around the world.
The U.S. new administration does not have any plan to renegotiate the TPP free trade pact.
The TPP free trade agreement does not come into effect without U.S. engagement in this regional trade deals. U.S. President’s order announced on January 23 made it perfectly impossible to foresee when the TPP trade pact will take effect.
On January 23, U.S. President Trump touched upon Japanese engagement in unfair practices on automobile trades, sending a clear signal that his administration will urge the Japanese Government to take necessary steps.
Greater U.S. access to the Japanese automobile market is likely to be the most crucial issue if the two governments of Japan and U.S. sit at a bargaining table aiming at a bilateral trade agreement possibly in a near future.
Japan’s trade surplus with U.S. has been growing. And President Donald Trump, putting more emphasis on job growth particularly in American manufacturing industries, regards the trade imbalance between the two countries as a serious problem.
The Japanese automobile industry has become one of targets to be attacked by the U.S. new President looking at the Japanese auto as being symbolic of “unfair practices.”
On the other hand, people in the Japanese agricultural sector are worrying that U.S. administration will press Japan to make a concession in farm trade that goes beyond the TPP deals, if the bilateral trade negotiations take place between the two countries.