Rich Neal: “Recently the United States and Japan resumed automobile trade talks and these talks have collapsed. The talks were aimed…”

“Recently the United States and Japan resumed automobile trade talks and these talks have collapsed. The talks were aimed at opening the Japanese market to autos and auto parts. The United States presented new proposals in the two priority areas-- improved foreign access to Japan's auto markets and increase sales of auto parts in both the United States and Japan. Japan's auto market remains closed. It has been stated Japan sells as many cars in a week in the United States as United States automakers sell a whole year in Japan. Japan continues to maintain a closed economy which discriminates against United States auto exports and effects international economics. Japanese officials have expressed dismay over what they termed new demands at a late stage of talks. Currently, there is a $36.7 billion United States-Japan gap in trade in autos and auto parts. This gap has to be decreased. Japan's market share of auto imports is only 4 percent. In addition, Japan's market share of auto imports is only 2.4 percent. Nearly 2 years of negotiations have failed to produce an agreement in the United States-Japan auto trade talks. The administration announced tough trade sanctions against Japan. These sanctions will probably entail higher tariffs on Japanese imports worth billions of dollars a year. I urge USTR and the administration to remain tough on Japan. The United States-Japan gap in trade is not reflective of the competitiveness of United States autos and auto parts.”