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Participants of
the dialogue, led by Pence and Japanese Deputy Prime Minister
Taro Aso, will hold their first round of talks in Tokyo on April
18 to discuss issues ranging from macroeconomic policy,
infrastructure investment and trade.
The dialogue will be a major test of U.S. President Donald
Trump's confrontational approach to trade. Senior administration
officials, including Ross, have signaled they would press Japan
to remove non-tarrif trade barriers and buy more U.S. products.
Japan, which proposed the dialogue, had hoped to keep
contentious issues like auto and agriculture trade out of the
talks by proposing an agenda focused on infrastructure
investment and energy.
One of Tokyo's strategy was to keep the bilateral dialogue as
informal as possible so Aso can deal directly with Pence, who is
regarded as having a less confrontational view on trade compared
with others in the Trump administration, Japanese government
officials said.
"The agenda is vague now, but if friction comes up in the
future, our plan is to say let's discuss that in the Aso-Pence
dialogue and then use the dialogue to diffuse any problems," one
of the officials said on condition of anonymity as he was not
authorized to speak publicly.
The participation of Ross heightens the chance the dialogue
would serve as a venue to discuss a bilateral trade deal, which
could put Japan under U.S. pressure to open up heavily-protected
areas like agriculture and pharmaceuticals, the officials said.
Hiroshige Seko, Japan's ministry of economy, trade and industry,
and Foreign Minister Fumiko Kishida will also join the dialogue,
the government officials said.
Ross has been known to have close ties with Japan, having led a
firm investing in the country since 1997 and serving as chairman
of the Japan Society - a non-profit organization promoting
bilateral relations, since 2010.
(Reporting by Yoshifumi Takemoto, Stanley White, Minami
Funakoshi, Tetsushi Kajimoto and Leika Kihara; Editing by
Michael Perry)
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