Trump Announces a Trade Pact With Japan

The United States and Japan signed a limited trade deal on Wednesday that will open Japanese markets to American farm goods and secure a win for an administration that has struggled to complete trade pacts with China, Canada, Mexico and other countries.

The deal, announced as President Trump met with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan on the sidelines of a meeting of world leaders in New York, will reduce Japanese barriers to American beef, pork, wheat, cheese, almonds, wine and other products, while cutting American tariffs on Japanese turbines, machine tools, bicycles, green tea, flowers and other goods. The two countries have also reached an agreement on digital trade that they hope will serve as a model for negotiations with other countries.

At a news conference on Wednesday, Mr. Trump said Japan would open its markets to $7 billion of American agricultural goods, calling the pact a “huge victory for America’s farmers, ranchers and growers.”

The text of the agreement contained no explicit assurances that Mr. Trump would not impose tariffs on imports of Japanese cars under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, as he has threatened to do in the past. The Trump administration had resisted Japan’s efforts to obtain such a reassurance as part of the negotiations, causing a rift that threw completion of the trade deal into question.

In a joint statement that appeared to refer to the impasse over automobiles, the United States and Japan vowed on Wednesday to “refrain from taking measures against the spirit of these agreements” and “make efforts for an early solution to other tariff-related issues.”

The president’s top trade adviser, Robert Lighthizer, told reporters that tariffs on Japanese cars appeared unlikely. “At this point, it is certainly not our intention, the president’s intention, to do anything on autos, on 232s, on Japan,” Mr. Lighthizer said.

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