South Korea and Japan are major auto exporters, while China has also been hit hard by the US tariffs
\n SEOUL
\nChina, South Korea and Japan agreed on Sunday to strengthen free trade in the face of a raft of new tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump.
\nThe agreement came at a meeting of top trade officials \u2014 the first at that level in five years \u2014 days ahead of the start of tariffs on a huge range of US imports, including cars, trucks, and auto parts.
\nSouth Korea and Japan are major auto exporters, while China has also been hit hard by the US tariffs.
\nThe meeting was attended by South Korea\u2019s industry minister Ahn Duk-geun, his Japanese counterpart Yoji Muto, and China\u2019s Wang Wentao.
\nThe three countries called for their negotiations for a comprehensive trilateral free-trade agreement to be speeded up, and agreed to create \u201ca predictable trade and investment environment\u201d, a statement said. South Korea\u2019s Ahn said the three countries must respond \u201cjointly\u201d to shared global challenges.
\n\u201cToday\u2019s economic and trade environment is marked by increasing fragmentation of the global economy,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cThe international environment surrounding us is constantly changing, and uncertainties are increasing,\u201d Japanese trade official Yasuji Komiyama said in a press briefing. Chinese official Wang Liping said \u201cunilateralism and protectionism are spreading\u201d and the three countries must assume responsibility to safeguard the multilateral trading system.
\nThe three countries account for 20% of the world\u2019s population, 24% of the global economy, and 19% of global merchandise trade, he said. Trump has promised tariffs tailored to each trading partner from April 2 to remedy practices he deems unfair.
\nBut he also told reporters last week that there would be \u201cflexibility\u201d, and markets appeared to react with some relief at the end of last week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
South Korea and Japan are major auto exporters, while China has also been hit hard by the US tariffs SEOUL China, South Korea and Japan agreed on Sunday to strengthen free trade in the face of a raft of new tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump. The agreement came at a meeting of top […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470136,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-470125","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n