Japan releases outline of US tariff deal, will review hydrogen-car subsidy
JUN YAMAZAKI
TOKYO -- Japan on Friday released a document describing its understanding of the tariff deal reached with the Trump administration, which includes policy changes that will open up its market to U.S. cars but lacks exact figures claimed by Washington.
As a part of the agreement, Japan will review a purchase subsidy that favors fuel cell vehicles over battery-powered electric vehicles, and it will accept American passenger vehicles that meet safety criteria without additional testing.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Nikkei Asia
13 minutes ago
- Nikkei Asia
US and China aim to extend tariff truce, Chinese negotiator says
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson greets Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng at Rosenbad before trade talks between the U.S. and China in Stockholm on July 28. (TT News Agency/Fredrik Sandberg via Reuters) PAK YIU NEW YORK -- The U.S. and China are pushing to extend their tariff truce, the Chinese side said Tuesday after talks in Stockholm ended. Speaking to reporters, Chinese negotiator Li Chenggang said the two sides had in-depth, candid and constructive exchanges on major issues of mutual concern.
Nikkei Asia
4 hours ago
- Nikkei Asia
US smartphone market growth slows as India-made devices surge: report
An Apple Store in Mumbai. India has become the top manufacturing hub for smartphones sold in the U.S. for the first time, research firm Canalys says. © Reuters (Reuters) -- The United States smartphone market grew just 1% in the second quarter as vendors front-loaded device inventories amid tariff concerns, while supply chain negotiations between China and the United States boosted shipments of Indian-made phones, research firm Canalys said on Monday. The imposition of U.S. tariffs has prompted smartphone makers to reorganize their supply chains to avoid higher import costs and protect their margins. China, a major hub for electronics manufacturing, has been targeted by significant tariffs, pushing hardware makers to explore other Asian countries to maintain low production costs. In response to tariffs, Apple earlier this year sought to make most of its iPhones sold in the United States at factories in India. However, the move drew criticism from U.S. President Donald Trump, who threatened additional tariffs on the Cupertino-based company if it did not produce domestically. "India became the leading manufacturing hub for smartphones sold in the U.S. for the very first time in Q2 2025, largely driven by Apple's accelerated supply chain shift to India amid an uncertain trade landscape between the US and China," said Sanyam Chaurasia, Principal Analyst at Canalys. "The market only grew 1% despite vendors front-loading inventory, indicating tepid demand in an increasingly pressured economic environment and a widening gap between sell-in and sell-through," said Runar Bjorhovde, Senior Analyst at Canalys. The share of U.S. smartphone shipments assembled in China fell from 61% in the second quarter of 2024 to 25% in the second quarter of 2025. India picked up most of the decline, with Indian-made smartphone volume growing 240% year-on-year.
The Diplomat
4 hours ago
- The Diplomat
US Senator Urges SpaceX to Block Internet Access to Southeast Asian Scam Operations
A United States senator has urged SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to block Southeast Asia's transnational criminal syndicates from using the company's Starlink satellite internet service to run scams on American citizens. According to a report by Reuters, Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH) wrote to Musk to alert him to recent reports that Starlink is being used by online scamming compounds based in Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos. Such syndicates 'have apparently continued to use Starlink despite service rules permitting SpaceX to terminate access for fraudulent activity,' Hassan wrote in the letter to Musk, a copy of which was viewed by Reuters. She added that SpaceX 'has a responsibility to block criminals from using the service to target Americans.' She later followed this up with a post on social media that included a screenshot of the Reuters story and called publicly for the company to take action. In her letter to Musk, Hassan also cited statistics from the U.S. Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network showing that Southeast Asia-based scam operations have been responsible for defrauding U.S. citizens out of billions of dollars. Since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, mostly Chinese criminal syndicates have established a firm base of operations in mainland Southeast Asia, particularly in Cambodia and Myanmar. These factories of fraud have relied on a large indentured workforce – mostly ordinary people who have been attracted by promises of employment, only to be kept imprisoned and forced to operate various types of digital scams, often on pain of beatings, mistreatment, and torture, as detailed in a recent report by Amnesty International. In April, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime estimated that scamming operations had generated close to $37 billion globally in 2023. Hassan is not wrong to claim that Starlink has facilitated such operations, albeit unwittingly. The remote internet service has allowed crime groups to set up online scamming operations in remote parts of the region, particularly in peripheral parts of Myanmar run by rebel groups. Internet is widely available in most regions, but Starlink units provide a portable alternative that has allowed scam operations to relocate swiftly in response to crackdowns by the region's governments. In February, Thailand's government cut internet access, along with power connections and fuel supplies, to three regions of neighboring Myanmar in an effort to shut down the online scamming centers that had been established there. However, as one observer noted on X yesterday, any crackdown on Starlink operations in Myanmar might also imperil their use by Burmese civil society organizations and political groups resisting the rule of the military junta in Naypyidaw. These groups have used satellite internet services to circumvent the strict internet controls and widespread mobile phone blackouts imposed by the junta since it took power in a coup in February 2021. According to a report published in Frontier Myanmar in March, 'Opposition groups increasingly rely on foreign-owned networks, such as satellite Internet services, to bypass government control and maintain connectivity.' It added, 'If Musk (or Trump) imposes broad restrictions on Starlink due to concerns about online scamming and illicit businesses, it could have unintended consequences – severing critical communication channels for activists and resistance groups while doing little to curb criminal enterprises.'
