spar over 復習
来月の日米首脳会談では、FTA開始要求よりも北朝鮮の問題に焦点が置かれる予定です。
Trump and Abe expected to focus on North Korea rather than spar over FTA: experts
WASHINGTON – When U.S. President Donald Trump visits Japan early next month as part of his first official trip to Asia, he is unlikely to push Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to accept U.S. calls to begin negotiations on a bilateral free trade agreement, according to two Japan experts in Washington.
Rather than exposing a rift over a major economic issue, Trump and Abe are expected to highlight their robust alliance in the face of the North Korean nuclear threat and China’s assertive territorial claims in the East and South China seas, they say.
“If President Trump opens the issue of an FTA with Japan, it will distract the United States and Japan from more pressing agenda items such as the North Korean threat,” said Andrew Oros, director of international studies at Washington College. Pyongyang has developed a nuclear-tipped missile that experts believe could reach the continental United States.
取り上げる表現は"spar over"です。『ジーニアス英和辞典』第４版（大修館）で"spar"を調べてみると、「（…について）友好的に議論する」とあり、"sparing match"で「（友好的な）論戦」、"sparing partner"で「（仲の良い）議論仲間」と載っています。つまり、日米自由貿易協定について友好的に話し合うということを表現しています。LDOCEでは、"to argue with someone but not in an unpleasant way"と定義されています。ちなみにボクシングのsparringも有名ですね。(Akim)
