The White House on Friday laid out objectives for trade talks with Japan, setting the clock for them to begin as early as Jan. 20, as the administration seeks to slash the US’ US$69 billion trade deficit with the world’s third-biggest economy.
According to the document, the US is aiming to secure duty-free market access for US industrial products and reduce, or eliminate, tariffs for US agricultural goods. It might want to negotiate the deal in stages.
Washington is also seeking more equitable trade in the motor vehicle sector and would try to “ensure that Japan avoids manipulating exchange rates to prevent effective balance of payments adjustment or to gain an unfair competitive advantage,” the document said.
October comments by US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin alluding to such a provision sparked concern in Japan that it might give Washington the right to label as currency manipulation any future interventions in the foreign-exchange market by Tokyo.
At a hearing this month on US negotiating objectives for the trade talks, the United Auto Workers union called on US President Donald Trump’s administration to demand strict quotas on Japanese vehicles and parts, with any increases based on the growth of US automotive exports to Japan.
US Senator Ron Wyden said in a statement that he supported opening markets for US goods, but criticized the objectives, saying that they lacked detail and contained a “completely inadequate” approach to trade enforcement.
Trump has roiled international markets by embroiling China in a trade dispute, forcing Canada and Mexico to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement, and pulling the US out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership early last year.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
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