TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan’s top trade negotiator Ryosei Akazawa said on Wednesday that he aims for steady but quick progress in tariff negotiations with the United States as losses at the country’s automakers from the tariffs constantly increase.
“The head of an automaker we spoke to told us that his company is suffering a $1 million loss every hour,” Akazawa told reporters in Tokyo just before he headed to Washington for a second round of negotiations.
“Under such circumstances, we have to aim for steady but quick progress,” he said, pointing out that no Japanese company has margin large enough to absorb the 25% tariffs on auto exports.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba later said that Japan’s basic stance to demand the abolition of U.S. tariff measures “has not changed”.
Akazawa will tell his American counterparts “the importance to jointly create jobs and play roles for the world in a harmonised manner,” Ishiba told reporters as he concluded visits to Vietnam and the Philippines.
Asked about domestic policies, Ishiba said he was not considering a new economic package at the moment but would carefully review ruling bloc proposals, including the much-debated measure of sales tax cuts.
(Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki; Additional reporting by Kantaro Komiya; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
