Supply Chain Research

Prime Minister Abe and President Trump were unable to reach an agreement to either bring the U.S. into the CPTPP or for the two countries to start bilateral trade negotiations at their recent summit. That’s not a big surprise despite the scale and persistence of Japan’s trade surplus. Additionally Japan has not yet been exempted from section 232 duties on steel and aluminum. Japanese manufacturers, led by Sanyo Special and Nippon Steel likely anticipated this with a 19% rise in U.S. imports in March (duties were applied on March 29) vs. February, indicating an attempt to maximize sales a...