'Investment, not tariffs,' says Ishiba after telephone talks with Trump before 3rd round of talks

Tokyo | Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Friday that he held telephone talks with US President Donald Trump and agreed to hold “productive" discussions at an upcoming tariff talks between the two sides.

“Investment, not tariffs,” Ishiba told reporters after the talks. He said Japan's position to keep pushing Washington to drop all recent tariff measures is unchanged and that he stands by plans to push for Japanese investment to create more jobs in the US in exchange.

The two leaders held talks just after Economic Revitalization Minister Ryosei Akazawa, Japan's chief tariff negotiator, headed to Washington for a third round of talks with his US counterparts. In the earlier rounds of talks, the US had not agreed to the Japanese requests.

Ishiba said he reminded Trump that Japan's position was for the US administration to scrap all recent tariffs on imports from Japan, to which the US president made no specific response.

“I expressed my expectations for productive discussion to be held, and we agreed,” Ishiba told reporters.

The US is charging a 25% tariff on imports of autos, a mainstay of Japan's trade with the US and a key driver of growth for the economy. Trump has relaxed some of those tariffs but has kept in place higher tariffs on steel and aluminum.

Friday's talks were requested by Trump and the two leaders discussed about 45 minutes on range of topics that also included security cooperation between the two allies and the US president's recent visit to the Middle East, Ishiba said.

He said the two leaders also agreed to hold talks when they both attend the Group of Seven summit in Canada next month.