By Leika Kihara
TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan’s top trade negotiator Ryosei Akazawa urged the U.S. to swiftly implement measures agreed upon in a bilateral trade deal, including lowering automobile and auto parts tariffs, Japan’s government said on Thursday.
The request was made during Akazawa’s 90-minute meeting with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick in Washington on Wednesday, Japan’s government said in a statement.
The statement also said Akazawa sought confirmation and “immediate execution” of the two countries’ agreement on U.S. levies for other goods imported from Japan.
The U.S. agreed in a trade deal last month to lower existing tariffs on Japanese car imports to 15% from levies totalling 27.5% previously, but a timeframe for the change to go into effect was not announced.
Duties on other Japanese goods would be cut to 15% from 25% effective Thursday, according to the agreement.
Speaking in parliament on Tuesday, Akazawa said Japan wants to make sure goods such as Japanese beef, which already carries tariffs above 15%, will not be charged the new 15% rate as an additional tariff.
Japan argues the two countries had agreed its goods imported to the U.S. would be exempt from such “stacking,” where they can be affected by multiple tariffs.
But a Federal Register attached to President Donald Trump’s July 31 executive order that addressed tariff rates for many trading partners showed a “no stacking” condition applies to the European Union, but no such clarification was issued for Japan.
Japan’s Asahi newspaper reported on Thursday, citing an unnamed White House official, that the U.S. will stack the tariffs, adding 15% on all Japanese imports without applying exceptions for items that already have tariff rates above 15%.
Given such discrepancies, Akazawa and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba have been under attack in parliament and domestic media for not crafting a written joint statement stipulating details of the trade deal with the U.S.
(Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Jamie Freed and Muralikumar Anantharaman)
