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Ishiba to Trump:Investment, Not Tariffs05/23 06:10

   Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Friday that he held telephone 
talks with U.S. President Donald Trump and agreed to hold "productive" 
discussions at an upcoming tariff talks between the two sides.

   TOKYO (AP) -- Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Friday that he held 
telephone talks with U.S. President Donald Trump and agreed to hold 
"productive" discussions at an upcoming 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 discussed about 
45 minutes on 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.