The minister in charge of trade talks with the United States said Sunday that Japan has no intention of discussing measures to prevent competitive currency devaluations.

"There were no talks on foreign exchange in the joint statement and during the Japan-U.S. summit (in September)," Japan's economic revitalization minister Toshimitsu Motegi said during a TV program, referring to the agreement between the two countries to begin negotiations for a bilateral trade agreement.

His comments come after U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Saturday that Washington is seeking to include an agreement to prevent competitive currency devaluations in any trade deal with Japan.

Motegi said during the NHK TV program that he believes foreign exchange has not been raised as an issue between the two countries and Mnuchin should be able to have "communication closely" with Japan's Finance Minister Taro Aso whenever necessary.

The two finance chiefs may hold discussions on foreign exchange in the future, he added.

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U.S. wants deal with Japan to avoid competitive currency devaluations

Motegi was in negotiations on a trade deal with his U.S. counterpart U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in New York last month.

Following their meeting, U.S. President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed to start talks for a trade agreement on goods. The move was a concession by Tokyo, which dropped its earlier insistence on a multilateral approach to trade issues.

Mnuchin told reporters in Bali, Indonesia, on the sidelines of a meeting of the International Monetary Fund, that including a clause against currency devaluation "would be one of the issues we discuss...our objective is to incorporate this language into future trade agreements."

The United States pushed to include such a clause in the renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement involving Canada and Mexico as well as a recently revised free trade deal with South Korea, as part of Trump's drive to reduce his country's more than $700 billion trade deficit.

The inclusion will probably be a major point of contention in the trade talks when Tokyo and Washington likely begin in the first half of next year, given that Japan resisted the addition of a similar clause to the 11-member Trans Pacific Partnership free trade deal.

Motegi told reporters after the TV program that Japan maintains a consistent stance and any agreement on foreign exchange is not included in the joint statement.

Japan and the United States also have different understandings of the scale of the trade negotiations. Earlier in the month, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence described the trade deal with Japan as a "free trade agreement," while the Japanese government says the bilateral accord will not be as comprehensive as an FTA.