US-Japan deal may be announced this month, says Larry Kudlow

Bloomberg

The Trump administration is optimistic about concluding a trade deal with Japan, which may be formally announced this month, said White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow.
President Donald Trump and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe are scheduled to hold a one-on-one meeting on September 25 during the UN General Assembly in New York, Kudlow said. “There just might be an announcement at the United Nations,” Kudlow told the US-Japan Business Conference in Washington.
Trump said that his administration had struck a partial trade accord with Japan on tariff barriers and digital trade, and the sides are expected to enter into the agreement in the “coming weeks.”
The president, however, didn’t make clear whether he’d end the threat of slapping steep auto tariffs on Japan — a key reason that Tokyo wanted to negotiate with the US from the outset of talks that began last year.
Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi, the country’s point man for the trade talks, said that Tokyo wanted the Trump administration to end the threat of new auto tariffs before agreeing to a final trade deal. “We are aware of the internal process that is going on in the US and the president’s notice of the US-Japan trade negotiations,” Motegi told reporters in Tokyo.