TOKYO, April 17, (AP): Japan recorded a trade deficit in its March-April fiscal year but racked up a surplus with the US, the Finance Ministry reported Thursday. Japan’s global trade deficit totaled 5.2 trillion yen ($37 billion) for the fiscal year through March, for the fourth straight year of deficits, according to the provisional statistics. The surplus with the US ballooned to 9 trillion yen ($63 billion).

Exports to the US are a contentious issue for US President Donald Trump and Japanese negotiators are in Washington to argue their case against higher US tariffs. Japan is a key longtime US ally and major investor in the US, employing hundreds of thousands of Americans. Trump said on April 2 that he planned to impose a 24% tariff on imports from Japan as part of an announcement of higher tariffs on dozens of countries.

After financial markets panicked, he put a partial 90-day hold on the import taxes, while increasing his already steep tariffs on Chinese goods to as much as 145%. Japan still faces a 10% baseline tariff and a 25% tax on imported cars, auto parts, steel and aluminum exports. Most of those duties took effect recently, but they pose a grave challenge for embattled Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.

Some analysts say Tokyo could at some point announce surprise concessions, like importing more American rice. Rice holds a special place in the Japanese psyche as the nation’s staple and has long been a protected sector in Japan. But recently a rice shortage has been pushing up prices. Japan’s annual exports climbed 5.9% from a year earlier, helped by strong shipments of goods like computer chips and vehicles.

Imports rose 4.7%. But a weaker Japanese yen made imports more costly. A recent influx of foreign tourists to Japan has pushed exports higher, since such spending counts as exports. For the month of March, Japan recorded a trade surplus of 544 billion yen ($4 billion). Exports climbed nearly 4% from a year earlier, for the sixth straight month of gains, although the surge was slower than in February.