WASHINGTON—Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to Washington next week comes amid heightened attention in Congress to an Asia-Pacific trade deal that has created a deep rift between President Barack Obama and members of his Democratic Party, and whose central feature is liberalized commerce between the US and Japan. Related story on C1.
White House officials said on Friday that Obama and Abe are not expected to announce a final agreement on trade talks between the two nations. Officials said negotiators have made progress, but differences remain over how to reduce US auto tariffs and Japanese barriers on US agriculture products.
Abe’s official visit to Washington on Tuesday will include a state dinner with about 300 guests and an address to a joint meeting of Congress, the first by a Japanese leader.
New security arrangements between the US and Japan are a top agenda item for the two leaders as Abe seeks to strengthen Japan’s defense capabilities.
Given that it is the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, Abe is also facing some pressure to address Japanese army behavior against South Korea and China during the war.
The White House is especially eager for Abe to mend fences with South Korea. And this week, 25 US lawmakers urged Abe “to formally reaffirm and validate” apologies made by his predecessors for Japanese wartime aggression.
Yet even without prospects for a breakthrough on trade, the negotiations between the US and Japan are likely to take precedence as Congress moves to give Obama so-called fast-track authority to negotiate international trade deals. House and Senate committees both approved legislation that would set standards for any trade deal but would permit Congress only to approve or reject, but not amend, any final agreement.
Obama wants such authority to complete a 12-nation Pacific Rim agreement. The US and Japan are the two largest economies in those negotiations, which means that resolving their differences would go far in approaching a broader deal.
Caroline Atkinson, White House deputy national security adviser for international economics, said on Friday negotiators had made substantial progress, but “we do not expect any announcement of a final deal. We still have some work to do.”
Abe arrives in the US just as Obama is engaged in a fierce fight with liberals and organized labor, who oppose giving him trade promotion authority and who are suspicious about trade deals because they fear job losses.
Image credits: AP/Carolyn Kaster