US-Japan trade deal progress likely in ‘months’: US official

Tokyo understands Washington’s desire to negotiate greater access to the Japanese market and efforts to reach a new trade agreement should bear fruit soon, a top US trade official said Wednesday. The testimony by US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer comes a week before US officials are due to meet Japanese counterparts on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan, according to Lighthizer.

He told a House of Representatives panel on taxes and trade duties that US farmers are now at a disadvantage in exporting to Japan, which has entered a new trade agreement with Europe and is also party to the Transpacific Partnership -- giving Australian and Canadian exporters an advantage over the United States. President Donald Trump withdrew from the TPP on his first full day in office in 2017, claiming it would have led to job losses and further erosion of US manufacturing.

The United States also hopes to resolve trade differences with India after terminating New Delhi’s duty-free access benefits under the Generalized System of Preferences -- a measure that took effect this month, according to Lighthizer.