On September 25, 2019, President Donald Trump and the Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, agreed in principle on a limited bilateral trade deal between their respective countries, which was memorialized by the signing of two separate trade agreements on October 7, 2019, namely the US-Japan Trade Agreement and the US-Japan Digital Trade Agreement.
These trade agreements mark what the White House is calling the "first stage" of the US-Japan agreement on tariff cuts and commitments on digital trade amounting to roughly $55 billion and are expected to take effect on January 1, 2020, with negotiations on a more comprehensive trade deal to follow thereafter.
The US-Japan Trade Agreement aims to help US farmers restore the Japanese market share they lost to competitors due to the US withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
As a result, the US-Japan Trade Agreement focuses primarily on agriculture. The agreement will provide the United States with substantial market access, totaling roughly $7.2 billion worth of US agricultural exports, through reduced or eliminated tariffs and US-specific quotas. In return, the United States will lower tariffs on a number of Japanese agricultural and industrial exports.
