WASHINGTON—China’s rising military might may top the agenda when President Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga meet Friday, but the two leaders also have unfinished business to resolve on the trade front.
The U.S. and Japan are at odds over the future of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, a regional trade bloc to fend off Chinese competition that the U.S. has abandoned and Japan now champions.
Former President Donald Trumppulled the U.S. from the TPP shortly after taking office in 2017, saying it undermined U.S. independence and hurt American workers.
Biden administration officials have made clear the U.S. wouldn’t return to the pact anytime soon as they undertake a comprehensive review of the trade policies they inherited from Mr. Trump and focus on strengthening the domestic economy.
Japan, a loyal ally of the U.S. on security issues, has been pushing for the U.S. to rejoin the TPP, something Mr. Trump at one point asked his own economic advisers to consider.
