Ishiba says he and Trump agreed in a phone call to a 'productive' round of trade talks

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TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Friday that he spoke by telephone with U.S. President Donald Trump and agreed to hold “productive” discussions at an upcoming round of tariff talks between the two sides.

“Investment, not tariffs,” Ishiba told reporters after the talks. He said Japan’s position to keep pushing Washington to drop all recent tariff measures is unchanged and that he stands by plans to push for Japanese investment to create more jobs in the U.S. in exchange.

The two leaders held talks just after Economic Revitalization Minister Ryosei Akazawa, Japan's chief tariff negotiator, headed to Washington for a third round of talks with his U.S. counterparts. In the earlier rounds of talks, the U.S. had not agreed to the Japanese requests.

Ishiba said he reminded Trump that Japan's position was for the U.S. administration to scrap all recent tariffs on imports from Japan, to which the U.S. president made no specific response.

“I expressed my expectations for productive discussion to be held, and we agreed,” Ishiba told reporters.

The U.S. is charging a 25% tariff on imports of autos, a mainstay of Japan’s trade with the U.S. and a key driver of growth for the economy. Trump has relaxed some of those tariffs but has kept in place higher tariffs on steel and aluminum.

Friday's talks were requested by Trump and the two leaders spoke for about 45 minutes on a range of topics that also included security cooperation between the two allies and the U.S. president’s recent visit to the Middle East, Ishiba said.

He said the two leaders also agreed to hold talks when they both attend the Group of Seven summit in Canada next month.