Don’t forget the U.S.-Japan trade agreement

COMMENTARY / Japan

Don’t forget the U.S.-Japan trade agreement

Asked if she would expand U.S.-Japan trade negotiations, Newly confirmed U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai's response was to commit to undertaking a detailed assessment of the current state of the relationship to determine the best path forward. | POOL / VIA REUTERS

By Riley Walters
Contributing writer

Mar 24, 2021

The Senate recently confirmed Katherine Tai to be the 20th United States Trade Representative. In that role, Tai will be the chief negotiator for President Biden’s and Congress’s trade priorities. The Senate had quite a few questions about what Joe Biden’s trade priorities could be during Tai’s confirmation hearing held on Feb. 25. Most of the hearing focused on the big issues: China, the World Trade Organization (WTO), the U.S.-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade agreement, American workers and climate change.

But the U.S.-Japan Trade Agreement (sometimes referred to as the U.S.-Japan phase-one deal) was seldom mentioned, despite the fact that Japan is the U.S.’s fifth largest trading partner and number one foreign investor. Why?

The first reason could be that the deal is simply on no one’s radar right now. Senators don’t know everything, they don’t have the time and so it’s not uncommon for them to focus just on big-ticket items like the USMCA or China.