By Makiko Yamazaki and Nathan Layne
(Reuters) -Japan and the U.S. on Friday agreed to hold another round of trade talks ahead of the G7 summit next month, Japan’s top tariff negotiator said, stressing that no deal would be without concessions on all Washington’s tariffs, including on autos.
Japan’s Economy Minister Ryosei Akazawa met with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in Washington for 130 minutes in a fourth round of the trade negotiations.
“We agreed to accelerate the talks and hold another round ahead of the G7 summit in June, where the leaders from Japan and the United States are set to meet,” Akazawa told Japanese media gathered at the Japanese embassy in Washington.
Japan faces a 24% tariff rate starting in July unless it can negotiate a deal with the U.S. It is also scrambling to find ways to get Washington to exempt its automakers from 25% tariffs on automobiles, Japan’s biggest industry.
Akazawa said Japan’s position has not changed that the tariffs are not acceptable and he is “strongly urging” the U.S. to immediately reconsider and drop all the tariffs, including those levied on automobiles, auto parts, aluminum and steel.
“If our requests to do that are met, we may be able to come to an agreement,” Akazawa told Japanese media gathered at the Japanese embassy in Washington. “But if that is not possible, then it will be difficult for us to agree to a deal.”
Japanese government sources said before the latest meeting that an immediate deal was unlikely, as they would never hastily seal a deal that would not benefit Japan, particularly the automobile sector.
Akazawa declined to give details of the latest discussions, but said trade expansion, non-tariff barriers and cooperation in economic security have been on the agenda at every meeting.
Semiconductor supply chains and rare earths are among economic security topics, he added.
He also said, while he was closely monitoring Nippon Steel’s possible deal for U.S. Steel, he could not yet comment on it due to a lack of any official announcement from the U.S. government.
(Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki in Tokyo and Nathan Layne in New York; Editing by Hugh Lawson and David Gregorio)
