Ball of Confusion Over Meeting Between Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is scheduled to meet with Donald Trump in New York on Thursday in a short stop over before traveling on to the APEC summit meeting in Peru.   There's just one problem the Prime Minister's office has had no offical confirmation has to where the meeting will take place or the agenda.  Prime Minister Abe will be the first world leader to officially meet with Donald Trump following his election.  During the campaign Donald Trump made statements which caused great concern in Japan: Stating that both Japan and South Korea should have their own nuclear arsenals (More than 90% of the population in both countries are against them having nuclear weapons.),  neither country contributes enough to the upkeep of American forces in their respective countries (Even though that's not true.) and that he would bring back to America jobs that had been stolen by Japan. (At present Japan doesn't have a large enough workforce to fill its current employment needs.)

Uncertainty over the talks shows the difficulties in turning Trump from a freewheeling businessman into a sitting president with a watertight schedule and a fully functioning administration by his inauguration on Jan. 20.
Japanese and U.S. officials said on Wednesday the State Department had not been involved in planning the meeting, leaving the logistical and protocol details that normally would be settled far in advance still to be determined.
“There has been a lot of confusion,” said one Japanese official.

Adding further confusion to the situation the Trump transition people have not consulted with the State Department as to what the protocols are for these meetings. 

This inability to  properly deal with these types of situations will just add the Japanese government's  anxiety about what the policies of the Trump administration will be and if they are even able to deal with the day to day workings of government.

  

Japan Really Wants You To Support The TPP

Japan's American embassy has worked hard to promote the wonders of the Trans Pacific Partnership, so hard in fact that the U.S. lobbying firm retained by the Japanese government has helpfully provided the language used in Op-Eds published in several newspapers in California.  The authors just scratched in their names.

Take this column by former San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders, who now serves as the president and CEO of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, in the San Diego Union-Tribune, titled: “Trans-Pacific trade pact benefits San Diego.”

Much of the language in Sanders’ op-ed also appears in a “San Diego Draft op-ed” distributed by Southwest Strategies, a consulting firm paid by the Japanese government to promote the TPP:

Jerry Sanders: “Notably, the TPP includes Japan, which is significant”
Southwest Strategies: “Notably, the TPP includes Japan, which is critical”

Jerry Sanders: “Trade is essential for sustaining America’s role as the most innovative economy in the world”
Southwest Strategies: “Trade is essential for sustaining America’s role as the most innovative economy in the world”

Jerry Sanders: “With more than 95 percent of the world’s consumers outside of our borders, and with more than one in five U.S. jobs dependent on trade, it is essential that the U.S. continue to open new markets for American goods and services, while creating and sustaining jobs for American workers.”
Southwest Strategies: “With more than 95 percent of the world’s consumers outside of our borders, and with more than one in five U.S. jobs dependent on trade, it is critical that the U.S. continue to open new markets for American goods, intellectual property rights and services, and create and sustain high-skilled, high-wage jobs for American workers.”

Isn't nice to know that know that the Japanese government can hire an American lobbying firm to write pro TPP articles which are then published under the byline of an individual who, unbeknownst to the reader is also working to have the trade agreement approved by the U.S. Congress.  

     

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