POTUS hints he won't push Japan for trade deal before summer election
TOKYO (Kyodo) – U.S. President Donald Trump indicated Sunday he will not push Japan for a bilateral trade agreement before a House of Councillors election in the summer.
"Much will wait until after their July elections," Trump said in a Twitter post after playing golf with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the second day of his four-day state visit to Japan. Later Sunday, the leaders watched a sumo tournament with their wives.
"Great progress being made in our Trade Negotiations with Japan. Agriculture and beef heavily in play," Trump wrote, a sign that he will not push Abe for a swift conclusion of the ongoing bilateral trade talks when they hold an official meeting Monday.
Trump apparently took into account Abe's concern about being forced to make concessions related to the agricultural sector as the prime minister leads his Liberal Democratic Party into the upper house election, with a simultaneous election for the House of Representatives also a possibility.
Underscoring the president's tweet, John Roberts, chief White House correspondent for Fox News, quoted Trump as telling him over the phone that he "will wait until after the July elections in the House of Councillors…before really pushing for a deal."
Speaking to reporters after playing 16 holes with Trump and veteran Japanese professional golfer Isao Aoki, Abe said, "I think I had a frank exchange of views (with Trump) in a very relaxed atmosphere," without providing details.
The two leaders had breakfast and lunch together at Mobara Country Club in Chiba Prefecture, and their lunch included double cheeseburgers with U.S. beef, according to Japanese officials.
It was their fifth round of golf together since Trump took office in 2017. The most recent time they played was during Abe's trip to Washington in late April.
Abe, dressed in a blue blazer and white pants, welcomed Trump, wearing a red pullover and carrying a red hat in his hand, who arrived at the golf course on his Marine One helicopter.
Trump's tweet came a day after he said he wants to make bilateral trade "a little bit more fair," a sign of his frustration about the hefty and chronic U.S. trade deficit with Japan.
Speaking at a meeting with Japanese business leaders, Trump said he wants to address the imbalance, remove barriers to U.S. exports and ensure fairness and reciprocity, while foreshadowing several announcements including "some very big ones over the next few months."
While maintaining hefty tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Japan and other U.S. trading partners, Trump has also threatened Tokyo and other major car exporters with a potential 25 percent automobile levy in a bid to pressure them into making concessions.
Aside from bilateral trade, Abe and Trump, in their formal talks Monday, are expected to affirm coordination over North Korea.
But in a contrast with U.S. national security adviser John Bolton, Trump on Sunday played down the significance of North Korean short-range ballistic missile tests earlier this month.
"North Korea fired off some small weapons, which disturbed some of my people, and others, but not me," Trump tweeted, a day after Bolton said Pyongyang's recent missile launches were in violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution – a view shared by Japan.
Trump said he has confidence in North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The two have met twice, the first time in Singapore last June and the second in Hanoi in February.
On the final day of the Summer Grand Sumo Tournament at Tokyo's Ryogoku Kokugikan, Trump presented the "President's Cup," a huge American-made trophy, to Asanoyama, a rank-and-file wrestler who clinched his first title Saturday.
On Monday, Trump and first lady Melania, the first state guests of Japan's new Reiwa imperial era, will have an audience with new Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako.
Trump will be the first foreign leader to meet with the emperor, who ascended the Chrysanthemum Throne on May 1 after former Emperor Akihito abdicated the previous day, the first Japanese monarch to stand down in about 200 years.
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20190526/p2g/00m/0na/030000c
glowin' hard today yitzah's.
China to offer liquidity to Baoshang Bank
BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s central bank said on Sunday that it would offer liquidity to Inner Mongolia-based Baoshang Bank, which the country’s financial regulators have said they would take over due to the serious credit risks it poses.
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) also said in a statement that it and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) would give more policy support to improve small- and mid-sized banks’ corporate governance.
Baoshang Bank came to prominence after its key stakeholder Tomorrow Holdings was targeted in a government crackdown on systemic risks posed by financial conglomerates.
The rare takeover, the first in nearly two decades, also highlights the long struggle of some smaller regional lenders in China, which suffer from deteriorating asset qualities, inadequate capital buffers, and poor internal controls and corporate governance.
There is concern that these feeble lenders will add to the vulnerability of country’s financial system amid the economic slowdown.
“After the takeover, PBOC and CBIRC will offer liquidity support, [and] timely and sufficient funds to ensure that the bank’s payment system is operating smoothly,” the PBOC said.
“From the situation of the past two days, Baoshang Bank has sufficient funding in its local branches. Depositors can take out money freely and smoothly,” it said.
The central bank also said it would guarantee all principal and interest of corporate deposits and interbank liabilities below 50 million yuan, and that the handling of those above 50 million yuan could be negotiated.
The PBOC and CBIRC said on Friday that control of Baoshang will last for a year, and that China Construction Bank, (CCB) will be entrusted to handle the business operations of the small lender, based in the industrial city of Baotou.
Baoshang had a total of 156.5 billion yuan ($22.68 billion) of outstanding loans by the end of 2016, a 65% jump from the end of 2014, according to the bank’s last filing on its assets and liabilities on its website. Its non-performing loan ratio was at 1.68% as of December 2016.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-banks-regulator-baoshang-bank/china-to-offer-liquidity-to-baoshang-bank-idUSKCN1SW096
liquidity support….i.e. we are fucked now and have to print moar since that plan we had to take over the world and replace the dollar as the world's reserve currency is not doing so well right now.
yep. Japanese people getting a full dose of what MAGA really means for them too-was thinking Abe would go late last year but over last few months have come around to him staying-still much baggage to deal with but can deal with that later, sort of like LG's situatuion. Come through when the world needs it and deal with the other shite later.
Beautiful to watch it
'dat a beautiful thing anon. Get misty when I see some of mine still. Sincerest form of flattery there is in here.
>Japanese culture is traditionally nationalist…much common ground there.
yes, most people see at as being racist which I do not. It's a protectionism that stems from years of being told how, what and why you should think. As long as people who go there accept that you will always be an outsider-the gaijin-you can relax and have fun with it. The ones who try to make them accept you have poor times. After-all it is there culture-who are we to make them accept anything? That attitude would go along way here-needed as the libs and there ilk are trying to make us accept the unacceptable.
I am too, I accepted it from the get go. Besides the 'radies ruv you for it-married so just a conversational thing but it's mutual respect. Those tech assholes just seem to not get that. Want to change it all for there beliefs that they always know what is best. Totally want to punch them in the faces for it. Make it bad for the ones who understand the entire concept of be who you are not what you want anyone to accept you as.
Such a powerful picture.