US President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe issued a joint statement from New York on Wednesday 26 September where they announced plans to start formal negotiations for a bilateral trade accord. The news came just days after trade negotiators from both sides met on the margins of the 73 rd session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to discuss the possibility of negotiating a free trade agreement. “The United States and Japan will enter into negotiations, following the completion of necessary domestic procedures, for a United States–Japan Trade Agreement on goods, as well as on other key areas including services, that can produce early achievements,” said a joint statement released on Wednesday. They also confirmed that they plan to hold additional negotiations covering other subject areas once this accord is complete, but without specifying further details besides that they would be related to trade and investment. The statement also clarified which “positions” each side had agreed to respect once formal trade talks get underway. “For the United States, market access outcomes in the motor vehicle sector will be designed to increase production and jobs in the United States in the motor vehicle industries; and for Japan,...