The Port of Oakland’s Executive Director, Chris Lytle, has highlighted the potential for increased volumes traded with Japan if it can remain a “strong, free trade partner”. That’s a challenge given the steady of expansion of American tariffs on the metals and autos industries as well as closer relations between Japan and non-American partners in CPTPP and RCEP. While Oakland’s inbound traffic from Japan rose by just 3% in 2Q 2018 on a year earlier that was due largely to a cut in empty container shipments. Stripping that effect out shows underlying volumes improved by 38% rise. A 2.3x s...