TOKYO—President Trump began his four-day visit to Japan on a provocative note.
Just moments before departing his Tokyo hotel for a round of golf with Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the president wrote on Twitter that he is not bothered by North Korea’s recent missile tests.
“North Korea fired off some small weapons, which disturbed some of my people, and others, but not me,” he wrote early Sunday. “I have confidence that Chairman Kim will keep his promise to me, & also smiled when he called Swampman Joe Biden a low IQ individual, & worse. Perhaps that’s sending me a signal?” The president was referring to a commentary on North Korean state media that called Mr. Biden, among other things, “a fool of low IQ.”
The tweet, which contradicted comments made a day earlier by Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, and sided with a dictator over his Democratic rival, a former U.S. vice president, was also bound to agitate his host nation. Japan has condemned Kim Jong Un’s nuclear pursuits and has warned of North Korea’s pattern of reneging on its promises to abandon its nuclear program.
Mr. Bolton told reporters in Tokyo on Saturday that the missile tests were “no doubt” a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.
On Monday, Messrs. Trump and Abe and their delegations are expected to hold talks on a range of issues, from trade to national security. The meetings come as part of the president’s visit to meet Japan’s newly enthroned Emperor Naruhito, whose wife, Empress Masako, is a Harvard-educated former trade negotiator.
On trade, Mr. Trump temporarily diffused tensions by delaying a decision on whether to impose new tariffs on imported cars and auto parts for six months—a decision on which Japan has much at stake.
The Trump administration has said the quantity of auto imports is so great “as to threaten to impair the national security of the United States.” Mr. Trump faces broad opposition from foreign allies, the auto industry and even lawmakers within his own Republican Party over the possible tariffs, as well as legal challenges to his use of the national-security law known as Section 232 to impose them.
“Trade remains the wild card in the U.S.-Japan relationship,” said Wendy Cutler, a former negotiator with the office of the U.S. Trade Representative who worked on U.S.-Japan trade talks and the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, from which Mr. Trump withdrew the U.S. in 2017.
“With the 232 auto announcement, I suspect that Japan is disappointed because the threat of this action is going to continue to hover over negotiations,” she added. “Japan considers itself a close ally to the United States and finds use of section 232 to be inappropriate.”
Following his golf game with Mr. Abe and professional golfer Isao Aoki, Mr. Trump said on Twitter that he plans to wait until after elections for Japan’s upper house of Parliament, likely in July, before pushing hard for a deal.
“Great progress being made in our Trade Negotiations with Japan,” the president said. “Agriculture and beef heavily in play. Much will wait until after their July elections where I anticipate big numbers!”
The menu for a post-golf lunch that Mr. Abe shared with Mr. Trump included double cheeseburgers with U.S. beef, the Japanese foreign ministry said.
The U.S. has sought to lower tariffs on products such as pork and beef. Japan granted tariff breaks to the European Union and countries in the 11-nation TPP under recently implemented trade deals—but not to the U.S., since Mr. Trump withdrew it from the pact.
On Saturday, shortly after arriving in Tokyo, Mr. Trump told a gathering of business leaders that the U.S. and Japan “are hard at work negotiating a bilateral trade agreement.”
“We hope to address the trade imbalance, remove barriers to United States exports, and ensure fairness and reciprocity in our relationship,” he added. “And we’re getting closer.”
Japan says the country has no barriers to U.S. auto imports, which don’t face tariffs, and says Washington hasn’t explained what concessions it wants on autos.
While Japan agrees with many aspects of Mr. Trump’s recent crackdown on Chinese trade practices, executives in Tokyo fear that the U.S.-China trade dispute could bear domestic implications.
The Japanese economy unexpectedly grew in the first quarter of 2019 supported by government spending, but there were some worrying signs connected to the U.S.-China trade dispute.
The U.S. has been forced to take protective measures of its own, including a $16 billion aid program, rolled out last week, to help farmers hit by the trade conflict with China
Write to Vivian Salama at vivian.salama@wsj.com
https://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-japan-visit-golf-burgers-and-a-provocative-tweet-11558854862
2019-05-26 07:14:00Z
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