Vice President Mike Pence is meeting with Japan Monday in Washington. D.C. to talk trade. Politico reports that Pence and Japan’s Deputy Prime Minister will meet for the second round of the U.S.-Japan economic dialogue launched by the Trump administration in the wake of Trump’s decision to pull out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Japan is expected to propose to change its safeguard mechanism on frozen U.S. beef imports to shorten review periods and allow importers to voluntarily lower import volumes to prevent tariffs from automatically kicking in.
Japan is currently the fourth largest goods trading partner with the U.S., according to the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office. U.S. total exports of agricultural products to Japan totaled $11 billion in 2016. Leading domestic export categories include corn, valued at $2.1 billion, pork products, valued at $1.6 billion, beef products, valued at $1.5 billion, and soybeans, valued at $1 billion.