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Ken
Saito, vice agriculture minister, experienced those contentious
negotiations first-hand as a trade ministry bureaucrat a couple
decades ago.
"I don't think there will be fierce trade talks again, but if
that happens, it is important for Japan to follow global rules
and principles" such as those laid out by the World Trade
Organisation, Saito told Reuters in an interview.
"For the government to instruct private companies what to do
would be tantamount to denying capitalism and liberalism."
Saito's comments came after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S.
President Donald Trump agreed over the weekend to establish a
new framework for economic dialogue. But Japanese officials said
Trump did not request a bilateral trade deal.
If the countries do move in that direction, Saito said it is
unlikely that the United States will press Japan to come up with
numerical targets in the U.S. auto sector as it did decades ago.
"I think there is a certain understanding in the U.S. that
Japanese automakers have made efforts" by boosting production
and creating jobs in the United States, Saito said.
(Reporting by Kaori Kaneko; editing by Malcolm Foster)
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