
Trump sets 15% tariff on Japanese imports as part of investment agreement
That rate is lower than the 24% that Trump threatened Japan with on April 2 and the 25% that he said he would hit Japanese imports with in a letter on July 7. Before Trump's current term, the effective U.S. tariff rate on Japanese imports was less than 2%, according to World Bank data.
Japan has been furiously attempting to avoid as much of a hit from Trump's global tariffs as possible. Japan's lead trade negotiator has visited the United States at least eight times, most recently on Sunday when he held a more than two-hour meeting with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
As part of the agreement, Trump said that Japan would "invest, at my direction, $550 Billion Dollars into the United States, which will receive 90% of the Profits." It was unclear how an investment of this type would work.
Trump touted the announcement at an event with congressional Republicans later Tuesday, saying that the tariffs 'kicked in better than anybody other than me and a few of the people in the room thought could happen."
Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the details of the agreement.
Japan was the fifth highest source of U.S. imports in 2024, with American consumers and companies buying nearly $150 billion of goods from the country, according to Commerce Department data.
The talks with Japan came at a tough time politically for Japan's government. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's ruling party recently lost both houses of parliament. Ishiba pledged to stay on as leader, in part to address economic headwinds.
Trump had recently downplayed the chances of an agreement with Japan.
"The Japanese are tough, but ultimately you have to understand we're just going to send a letter saying 'this is what you're going to pay, otherwise you don't have to do business with us'. But there's a chance," Trump said on June 16.
In May, Trump approved a long-delayed takeover of U.S. Steel by Japan's Nippon Steel. As part of that deal, Nippon agreed to create at least 70,000 jobs through a $14 billion investment, according to both companies and the White House. The companies later upped that to 100,000 jobs but clarified that those additions included "direct, indirect, and induced jobs."
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Daily Mail
16 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
All the flashpoints of Trump's meeting with Starmer: From awkwardly slating the PM's 'pal' Sadiq Khan, and blasting UK's 'ugly' wind farms to claiming he 'never had the privilege' of visiting Jeffrey Epstein's infamous island
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The Independent
18 minutes ago
- The Independent
Trump administration memo clears way for federal employees to push their ‘correct' religion on other coworkers
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Daily Mail
18 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Trump reveals 'inappropriate' reason Jeffrey Epstein was thrown out of Mar-a-Lago
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Trump also suggested - but offered no proof - that Democrats could have planted his name in files associated with the Epstein investigation. 'They ran the files. I was running against somebody that ran the files,' Trump said. 'If they had something, they would have released it. Now they can easily put something in the files that's a phony.' Attorney General Pam Bondi briefed Trump during a May 2025 meeting that his name was found in the Epstein documents 'multiple times,' according to reports, which have been denied by the president. Even if the president is named in the files, it does not mean he's implicated in any wrongdoing related to Epstein's child sex trafficking. Trump finished his rant on Monday by claiming his poll ratings have increased by 4.5 points since this 'ridiculous Epstein stuff' has been in the news. But a cache of surveys from major outlets show the president's approval rating has largely remained stable or declined slightly in July, with most measuring his approval in the mid-40s. No credible poll has shown him jumping 4.5 percentage points. Trump told Daily Mail on Monday that no one has asked him about a pardon for Maxwell as he went on a rant about Epstein. 'I'm allowed to give her a pardon. Nobody's approached me with it. Nobody's asked me about it. It's in the news about that, that aspect of it. But right now, it would be inappropriate to talk about it,' he said. Maxwell, who met with Justice Department officials last week, is serving 20 years in prison for her involvement in Jeffrey Epstein's sordid crimes of sex trafficking. She was convicted in 2021 on five counts related to sex trafficking and conspiracy. A growing fringe effort to get Trump to pardon Maxwell has unfolded after the Justice Department rejected her effort to have her conviction on child sex trafficking charges thrown out. Questions about Epstein and queries about his relationship with the notorious financer followed Trump from the United States to his meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. He again denied ever making a controversial doodle for Epstein's 50th birthday and claimed he'd never been to the financier's private island in the Caribbean. 'I don't do drawings,' Trump said when asked about a Wall Street Journal report that had reviewed a typewritten birthday letter bearing Trump´s signature, framed by the seemingly hand-drawn outline of a naked woman. 'Sometimes people say, would you draw a building? And I'll draw four lines and a little roof, you know, for a charity stuff, but, but I'm not a drawing person,' Trump said. The president is suing the Journal and owner Rupert Murdoch for $10 billion in a defamation suit tied to the publication of that article.