Trump tries to sell rice to the Japanese

Telegraph

19 hours ago

Japan's attempt to strike a deal with the US before Donald Trump's deadline next week has hit an unlikely sticking point: rice.
As part of the negotiations, Mr Trump has revealed he wants Tokyo to buy more American rice.
'Japan, they won't take our RICE, and yet they have a massive rice shortage,' the president posted on Truth Social this week.
In a later briefing to journalists on Air Force One, he branded the Japanese as 'spoilt' for eschewing American rice, even though 'they need rice so badly'.
The issue has become a major sticking point, jeopardising the prospect of a US-Japan deal ahead of Mr Trump's self-imposed deadline to strike a deal by next week.
'I'm not sure if we're going going to make a deal, I doubt it, with Japan,' Mr Trump said. 'What I'm going to do is, I'll write them a letter saying, 'We thank you very much and we know you can't do the kind of things that we need. And therefore you'll pay 30pc, 35pc', or whatever the number is that we determined.'
America and Japan, which is the world's fifth-largest economy, share around £140bn of two-way trade. Japan is one of the world's top 10 consumers of rice, but the country has faced a domestic crisis after the cost of the crop surged over the past year.
'I have repeatedly stated that agriculture is the foundation of the nation,' Ryosei Akazawa, Japan's economy minister, told a press conference this week. 'In negotiations with the United States, our stance remains unchanged. We will not engage in talks that would sacrifice the agricultural sector.'
As Japan's lead negotiator, Mr Akazawa is tipped to make another flying visit to Washington this weekend – his eighth – as the two sides try to emulate Britain, China and Vietnam in striking an agreement with Mr Trump's administration.
India, South Korea, the European Union and several south-east Asian countries are also trying to get a deal over the line before the 90-day pause on US tariffs ends on July 9.
Rice prices have jumped fourfold in the past year. Heatwaves have hit the harvest, a tourist boom has fuelled demand from restaurants, and there have been bouts of typhoon or earthquake-related panic buying.
Since March, the Japanese government has released 300,000 tonnes of rice from its stockpile. But supply chain bottlenecks have prevented buyers from feeling the full benefit.
The issue has caused anger, which has put politicians under pressure ahead of an upper house election this month.
In May, Taku Eto was forced to resign as farm minister over the issue, after admitting he never buys rice because his supporters give it to him for free.
Japan has steep barriers to imported rice. Only the first 100,000 tonnes of imported 'staple rice' – the most popular variety for Japanese consumers – can enter Japan tariff-free.
After that, the rice attracts a levy of 341 yen (£1.73) per kilogram. Another 670,000 tonnes is allowed for use in processed foods or animal feed, a tiny fraction of Japan's annual domestic harvest, which is typically almost 7m tonnes.
Half of its tariff-free imports already come from the US. At a government tender for tariff-free shipments held last week, US producers grabbed more than 80pc of the available quota.
'Rice imports from abroad, including from the US, have increased 120 times from a year earlier,' Shinjiro Koizumi, Japan's agriculture minister, said this week.
The rice negotiations could stall because Americans produce long-grain rice, and the Japanese prefer short-grain.
Aeon, a major Japanese retailer, is trying to woo the Japanese with California-grown rice, and some Japanese restaurants are blending domestic and imported rice.