Kate Kalutkiewicz:
Well, it appears that the president was successful in attaining some concessions from the Japanese on rice. This was a sector, of course, of top interest.
The rice market in Japan is quite protected. They allow a certain amount of rice to enter the market without paying tariffs. But once they hit this quota, tariff rates exceed 700 percent. This has been a very significant area of interest for the U.S. agricultural community. So increased access there would represent a fairly significant market opening.
The other sector that the president has sought increased access in is autos. You have heard the president talk over and over about the auto sector, in particular, his view that the Japanese market is closed to U.S. cars.
Now, it’s notable that the U.S. car market is not impacted by tariffs. The Japanese famously don’t charge tariffs on vehicles coming into the market, but they maintain really significant regulatory differences, which have really impeded the access and growth of the U.S. auto sector in Japan.
So commitments to relax or to adjust some of those regulations could also be meaningful to the U.S. auto sector.
