Japan Pushing for Multilateral Efforts to Address Imbalances


Tokyo, June 2 (Jiji Press)--Japan is pushing for multilateral, not bilateral, efforts to address global current account imbalances, considered a major source of trade tensions between the United States and China, officials said.

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has been resorting to tariffs to pressure Beijing to make concessions in their trade fight.

Washington is also considering introducing restrictions on Japanese vehicle exports to the United States while calling on Tokyo to open the Japanese agricultural markets further.

To address imbalances, Japan is focusing on the current account, which covers investment in addition to goods and services trade, instead of the trade balance that includes only goods trade.

Imposing tariffs on goods from a certain country to improve the trade balance "isn't a fundamental solution" as this leads to an increase in imports from other countries, a senior Japanese Finance Ministry official said.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]

Jiji Press