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Original Title: Yoshihide Suga Receives Pfizer Vaccine, Eager to Visit the US to Strengthen the Japan-US Alliance. USA
Why did Suga choose to get vaccinated at this time?
According to Japanese media reports, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga was vaccinated on the 16th with the new corona vaccine jointly developed by Pfizer Pharmaceuticals of the United States and a German biotech pharmaceutical company.
Since the vaccine requires two doses, Yoshihide Suga will receive the second dose before the beginning of April, thus completing the process for Pfizer’s new vaccination crown. Currently, only Pfizer vaccines are approved by the Japanese side, and some popular vaccines are still awaiting agency approval in the clinical trial process.
Why did Yoshihide Suga decide to get vaccinated at this time?
A Japanese government official said this is one of his preparations for his visit to the United States next month. At the previous regular press conference, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato announced that Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga will visit the United States in early April. Although the Japanese side has not disclosed the specific date and arrangement, according to previous Japanese media reports, the exact date of the visit is expected to be around April 8.
If this happens, this will not only be Yoshihide Suga’s second overseas visit since taking over as Prime Minister in September last year, but also the first foreign leader to meet face-to-face with US President Biden under the new crown pneumonia epidemic.
We look forward to further strengthening the alliance between the United States and Japan.
Last October, Yoshihide Suga visited Vietnam and Indonesia. Japanese media believe that Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga chose these two Southeast Asian countries for his first visit during his tenure, which aims to strengthen the alliance between Japan and the Southeast Asian countries. Since then, Yoshihide Suga adjusted his travel plan due to the increasing severity of the new corona pneumonia epidemic around the world.
It is worth noting that Yoshihide Suga’s predecessor, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who resigned early for health reasons, was also the first foreign leader to be received by then-US President Trump after winning the election. 2016. This shows that despite the current COVID-19 pandemic, the Yoshihide Suga government is still struggling to continue this tradition.
Establishing a relationship with the new Biden government has always been one of the diplomatic issues that the Yoshihide Suga administration will focus on first in 2021. The Japanese originally sought to quickly coordinate their visit to the United States after the administration Biden took over on January 20, and achieved the first summit meeting in early February. But for the new Biden administration, fighting the epidemic is a top priority, so it rejected the Japanese side’s request.
Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said at the previous press conference on Suga Yoshihide’s decision to visit the United States: “This is a firm commitment made by the Biden administration to strengthen the Japan-United States alliance, and we welcome it. “
After Biden was elected president of the United States in November last year, Yoshihide Suga immediately sent a “congratulatory message.” Biden also spoke with Yoshihide Suga in late January this year, and the two sides reached a consensus on strengthening cooperation to further strengthen the US-Japan alliance.
In the previous press conference, Kato also revealed that since the epidemic has not yet subsided, the Japanese delegation to the United States will be controlled within 90 people. With the exception of Suga Yoshihide himself, all members visiting the United States will complete two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine prior to departure. At that time, equivalent members of the US team will also complete the vaccination. The itinerary and specific matters will be shortened as soon as possible.
According to statistics from Johns Hopkins University in the United States, at 3:00 p.m. on March 15, Japan had a total of 447,000 confirmed cases of new corona and a total of 8,590 deaths.
These topics will be hot
What will Suga Yoshihide and Biden talk about face to face on this visit to the United States in which Japan has high hopes?
According to the Japanese media, how Japan and the United States can fight the epidemic together and share their experience in fighting the epidemic will be one of the hot topics of Yoshihide Suga’s visit. Furthermore, topics such as the economy and trade, climate change and the holding of the Tokyo Olympics are also within the scope of the discussion.
For example, in the field of economics and trade, the two sides plan to continue negotiations this year on the unfinished car tax issue in the Japan-US trade agreement. During Biden’s predecessor, Trump, Japan and the United States reached a “mini version” trade agreement, but some “hard bones” were left out. Therefore, according to the Japanese plan, when the global epidemic eases slightly, it is necessary to follow up on unfinished negotiations in a timely manner to avoid “long nights and more dreams.” Junichi Sugawara, a principal investigator at the Mizuho Research Institute, predicted in an interview with a China Business News reporter that the second phase of the Japan-US trade deal will not resume before this fall. boost the United States. Competitiveness of national industries “.
Sugawara Shunichi believes that while Biden will not adopt the same strategy as predecessor Trump, he will not “show softness” in subsequent trade negotiations with Japan. For example, there will be a stricter Japanese market opening, environmental protection and labor protection. Requirements .
But on the 16th there was a certain “noise” that did not lead to the renewal of the trade agreement between Japan and the United States. Japanese media reported that because the amount of beef imported from the United States will exceed the standard for this fiscal year agreed upon in the Japan-United States trade agreement, the Japanese government will take a safeguard measure called “emergency restrictions on importation “as soon as possible to increase tariffs on beef imported from the United States To protect Japanese domestic producers.
Under the Japan-US Trade Agreement, US beef import tariffs will be reduced from 38.5% to 25.8% and eventually reduced to 9% in 2033. At the same time, the agreed standard for this fiscal year (from April 2020 to the end of March 2021) is 242,000 tonnes. Once the quantity of beef imported from the United States exceeds the standard value, Japan will activate an “emergency import restriction”.
According to data from Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, as of the end of February this year, Japan has imported more than 233,000 tons of American beef this fiscal year, which is close to the standard value. In view of the fact that American beef will still enter the Japanese market before the end of this fiscal year, this standard value will definitely be broken. By then, US beef import tariffs will be restored from the current 25.8% to 38.5% and continue for 30 days. The governments of Japan and the United States will also begin negotiations within 10 days.
In terms of defense spending, because Trump paid great attention to US financial spending during his tenure, especially foreign-related military cooperation spending can be described as “a must-have comparison.” At the time, the Trump administration also required all countries that have military alliance agreements with the United States to substantially increase defense spending, and the money must be used to buy American weapons. As a result, America’s allies, including Japan, complained. Therefore, the Japanese side hopes to properly solve the problem of the distribution of funds for the US military stationed in Japan during Biden’s tenure.
Furthermore, on the subject of the Olympics to which the Japanese government attaches great importance, Biden said in a media interview in early February: “I hope it will take place, but it is still unclear. We are a government that values the science and should decide whether or not it is based on scientific evidence. Held. ” This is Biden’s first public statement about the Tokyo Olympics under the epidemic. The Japanese media believe that for the Yoshihide Suga government, there is an urgent need for the support of the United States to ensure the smooth running of the Tokyo Olympics.
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Editor in Charge: Zhang Yanan
