Tokyo will tell US to respect WTO rules

Tokyo

JAPAN will tell the US in their economic talks that any border tax the US government imposes on imports should not break World Trade Organization rules (WTO), an adviser to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Wednesday.

Yasutoshi Nishimura also said that Japan would not rule out a bilateral trade agreement with the US, but talks may not start soon because Washington is putting a higher priority on renegotiating the North America Free Trade Agreement. "We don't want any border tax to violate WTO rules by becoming a tax system intended to promote exports," said Mr Nishimura. "Our position is WTO rules and multilateralism are important and we want to lobby for that."