Japan PM to Clear Up Yen Comments with Trump

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he is ready to rebut any unreasonable criticism from U.S. President Donald Trump in upcoming summit talks that Japan has driven down the value of the yen over the past several years to make its exports lucrative.

“I’ll rebut what is necessary,” Abe told a House of Representatives Budget Committee session on Feb. 1. Therefore, currency exchange policy could emerge as a key point of contention during the summit meeting on Feb. 10.

“You look at what Japan has done over the years. They play the money market, they play the devaluation market,” Trump said on Jan. 31.

Trump described Japan-U.S. car trade as “unfair” and is poised to demand Tokyo hold talks aimed at signing a bilateral trade agreement. However, the rate of Japan’s import tariffs on imported automobiles is already zero. As the United States has little ammunition for attacking Japan’s car trade practices, the U.S. automobile industry has cited Japan’s currency exchange policy as a trade barrier.

The U.S. automobile industry has repeatedly complained that Japan has devaluated the yen to increase Japanese automakers’ exports to the United States.

via Mainichi

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