Tokyo [Japan]: Amid China’s economic rise, Japan and the United States on Wednesday launched an initiative to facilitate regular discussions on trade issues. The first series of meeting under the US-Japan Partnership on Trade is expected early next year, with the initial areas of focus including “third country concerns” and cooperation in improving a rules-based economic order in the Indo-Pacific region, Kyodo News reported citing officials of the two countries. The announcement was made as Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi held a meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, who is on her first visit to Japan since assuming her position in March. “Our close collaboration will support the Biden-Harris administration’s economic framework for the Indo-Pacific and help create sustainable, resilient, inclusive, and competitive trade policies that lift up our people and economies,” Tai said in a statement. In an apparent reference to China, Japan and the United States have repeatedly raised the issue of “market-distorting practices,” such as industrial subsidies and overproduction, at meetings of the Group of Seven nations and other multilateral talks.
