TOKYO -- Washington's stance toward traditional trade adversaries seems to be softening as more hawkish figures lose influence and security concerns intervene -- though talk on Tokyo is as critical as ever.
The protectionist faction's decline began in early April, when Steve Bannon, chief strategist to President Donald Trump, was removed from the principals' committee of the U.S. National Security Council. Bannon has billed himself as an economic nationalist, and has called America's withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact "one of the most pivotal moments in modern American history."
