Tokyo- Japan is hammering out plans to
show US President Donald Trump its firms are ready to create
US jobs, according to a document whose contents were revealed
to Reuters, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe prepares for a summit
where automotive trade will be high on the agenda.
Abe will visit Washington on February 10 for the talks at which
Trump is expected to seek quick progress toward a two-way trade
deal.
An early draft of the document, called "US-Japan Growth
and Employment Initiative", listed five areas including
infrastructure. The document, which was read to Reuters, did not
mention automotive trade, which Trump has targeted as "unfair"
in an echo of complaints by Washington decades ago.
The document left blanks for the numbers of jobs to be
created and the scope of investment but a government source said
several hundred thousand jobs could result.
It also referred to the idea of buying dollar-denominated
"infrastructure bonds", a proposal that has been floated as a
way Japan could take part in Trump's promised upgrade of US infrastructure.
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Japanese officials said they were still trying to assess
just what Trump wants from Japan. In addition to singling out
cars, he has also lumped Japan with China and Mexico as big
contributors to America's trade deficit.
However, Japan's share of the US global trade gap has
shrunk to 9 percent from more than half in the early 1990s.
Automobiles and car parts account for about three-fourths of
the overall US-Japan trade gap, making it an easy target.
'Buy American'
In a phone call with Abe on Saturday, Trump reiterated his
pledge to create jobs in the United States and asked that the
Japanese auto industry contribute, the Nikkei business daily
reported, quoting unidentified Japanese government officials.
Abe is expected to meet Toyoto Motor Corp CEO Akio
Toyoda this week, possibly on Friday.
"Trump has made a promise to 'Buy American, Hire
American'," said one former Japanese diplomat. "Symbolically,
autos are a very big player."
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The renewed focus on the automotive trade has some Japanese
officials and media reminiscing - and not happily - about heated
U.S.-Japan auto talks more than 20 years ago.
A last-minute deal in June 1995 averted U.S. tariffs on
Japanese luxury cars when Japan's automakers crafted "voluntary
plans" to boost purchases of American auto parts and expand U.S.
production. That allowed the Japanese government to maintain its
opposition to setting official numerical trade targets while
letting U.S. negotiators also claim a win.
Yoshihiro Sakamoto, the top Japanese trade bureaucrat in
those talks two decades ago, said such plans - drafted behind
the scenes by the auto industry and trade ministry - could be a
model for addressing the situation now. Some experts pointed
out, however, the ministry's clout had waned since those days.
"What America wants is investment," Sakamoto told Reuters.
US car investments
Toyota has come under fire from Trump for plans, announced
in 2015, to shift production of its Corolla sedan from Canada to
Mexico. Earlier this month, Japan's top automaker said it would
invest $10 billion in the United States over the next five
years, the same as the previous five years.
On Monday, Honda Motor Co Ltd and General Motors Co
said they would jointly produce pollution-free hydrogen
fuel cell power systems in the United States from around 2020.
The companies said they would invest $85 million to add a
production line at a GM battery plant in Brownstown, Michigan,
and create 100 jobs.
Boosting output in the United States, however, could force
Japanese car makers to make tough decisions about reducing
production - and jobs - back home.
Central Japan Railway Company, or JR Tokai, has
given the government estimates of how many jobs would be created
by proposed high-speed Shinkansen railways in California and
Texas and a high-tech "maglev" railway along the U.S. east
coast, a JR Tokai spokeswoman said. She declined to release the
figures.
Abe, who is close to JR Tokai Chairman emeritus Yoshiyuki
Kasai, has touted maglev or magnetic levitation as a "dream
technology" that could link New York and Washington in under an
hour.