(Reuters) -Japan and the U.S. on Friday explored the possibility of a trade agreement, Japan’s top tariff negotiator, Ryosei Akazawa, told a briefing, while refraining from commenting how close they are to reaching a deal.
“We had a very detailed exchange and explored the possibility of a trade agreement,” Akazawa told reporters after he met with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick separately in Washington in a sixth round of tariff negotiations.
It is likely to be the last round before Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and U.S. President Donald Trump are to meet in Canada on the sidelines of the Group of Seven leaders’ summit, where Japan has been hoping to clinch a deal.
Akazawa refrained from commenting on whether the talks have matured enough to reach an agreement, saying a deal is possible only when the leaders of both countries approve everything as a package.
He also declined to comment on the chance of Ishiba and Trump reaching an agreement at their upcoming meeting.
Japan faces a 24% tariff rate starting in July unless it can negotiate a deal with the U.S. It is also scrambling to find ways to get Washington to exempt its automakers from 25% tariffs on automobiles, Japan’s biggest industry.
(Reporting by Yoshifumi Takemoto and and Makiko Yamazaki in Tokyo and Nathan Layne in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler and Stephen Coates)
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