Abe woos Trump, leaves trade talk to deputies

US President Donald Trump spoke of his chemistry with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe over a two-day visit that featured hugs, hand-holding and five hours on the golf course.

 

On trade, an issue that has caused prior tensions, Abe sought to distance the topic from his burgeoning friendship with Trump — and assign it to Vice President Mike Pence. At Japan’s behest, the leaders put Pence and Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso, who is also finance minister, in charge of a new economic dialogue that will focus on three themes: monetary policy, cooperative projects and trade.

 

“There’s a possibility he may be easier to work with,” Yoshimasa Maruyama, chief economist at SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. in Tokyo, said of Pence. “He will be under instructions from Trump, so we shouldn’t raise our expectations too high, but he’s probably more logical.” The arrangement is a sign of progress for Abe on a trip in which he aimed to build a personal rapport with Trump and win his backing for an alliance that guarantees Japan’s security against threats from North Korea and China. While Trump has a tendency to hit out at friends and foes alike — and large points of friction remain — for a few days at least he demonstrated a greater appreciation for America’s biggest ally in the region.

 

Trump has publicly chided Japan, on both the campaign trail and in office, for its trade and currency policies, and what he said was an insufficient contribution to the cost of housing US troops in the country. A missile test by North Korea on Sunday provided an opportunity for Abe and Trump to show unity against its provocations.

 

Now they must figure out a way forward on trade. Japan had the second-largest surplus with the US after China last year, with the bulk of the discrepancy coming from auto exports — a situation that Trump called “unfair” when he withdrew the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation trade pact that took many years to negotiate and was at the ratification stage.

 

In one of his first acts as president, Trump pulled out of the TPP and called for trade deals with individual countries. By contrast, Pence was at one point in favor of TPP, a pact strongly championed by Abe.