The US-Japan trade deal is seeing some progress, with the lower house of the Japanese Parliament approving the limited trade deal signed between PM Shinzo Abe and US President Donald Trump in September. Once the limited trade deal gets approved, tariffs on US farm goods and machine tools from Japan could get cut.

However, doubts still remain on whether the limited trade deal could progress towards cutting tariffs on Japanese cars and auto parts. Despite this key concern remaining unaddressed, Abe believes that the trade deal will prove beneficial to Japan instead of being a one sided deal in the US’s favor.

As a next step, the trade deal awaits ratification by the upper house of Japan’s parliament. However, after being voted and passed through the lower house, chances are high that the trade deal could get ratified and enforced by as soon as January 2020. This partial trade deal is expected to add around 0.8% to Japan’s GDP over the next 10-20 years, according to estimates by the government.