WASHINGTON: The United States and Japan will seek to find common ground in thorny issues on trade in their second round of bilateral economic dialogue on Monday, with Tokyo showing little appetite to meet US calls to open up its highly protected agricultural markets ahead of a general election this week.

The US delegation led by Vice President Mike Pence has said his administration hopes the dialogue, which kicked off in April, will lead to negotiations on a two-way trade deal that will give US goods more access to Japanese markets.

Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso, who heads the Japanese team, hopes to diffuse such calls with cooperation on infrastructure and energy, for fear a two-way trade agreement would expose it to stronger US pressure to open up politically sensitive markets like farm products and beef.

While Aso has said he hopes for a “win-win” deal, there is uncertainty on whether the two sides can narrow differences exposed at the first round of talks, analysts say.

“Japan has no plan to open talks for a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) any time soon,” said a Japanese government official with knowledge of the negotiations. “We may not see much progress as Washington seems to have a lot on their plate,” with talks on renewing the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) also under way, the official said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak publicly.

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2017