U.S. Treasury Secretary expresses "great satisfaction" with the first Japan-U.S. tariff negotiation.
On the day of local time 16th, the originally planned Japan-U.S. tariff negotiation between Akizawa and Baston as well as U.S. Trade Representative's Office (USTR) representative Grail and other ministerial officials was temporarily added with a meeting between President Trump and Akizawa. Baston said to Trump on X: "Thank you very much for presiding over the productive talks and pointing out the direction for reaching an agreement most beneficial to the American people."
The Japanese and American sides plan to hold the second round of ministerial consultations this month, aiming to reach an agreement as soon as possible. At the end of this month, Japanese Finance Minister Kato Katsunobu will go to Washington to attend the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank as well as the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors' meeting, where he is expected to discuss issues such as exchange rates with Baston.
Baston wrote on X: "I look forward to engaging in more proactive dialogues with friends from Japan soon."
Regarding the issue of host-nation support costs mentioned by Trump, since it was not mentioned in the subsequent ministerial consultations, the opinion advocating "it should be handled separately from the tariff negotiations" has been dominant.
However, a senior official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed concern, saying: "In order to satisfy President Trump, the issue of host-nation support costs may ultimately have to be included in the agreement items."
Source: rfi
Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1829741577133068/
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