TOKYO -- Japan hopes to skirt higher automobile tariffs and any moves toward a bilateral free trade agreement in the first cabinet-level negotiations with the U.S. next week, but cajoling the increasingly impatient Americans may prove a challenge.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer is expected to demand the start of free trade talks when he meets with Toshimitsu Motegi, Japan's economic and fiscal policy minister, in Washington on Aug. 9. This will be their first meeting under the "free, fair and reciprocal" trade talk framework.
