Trump complains about Japan not importing enough American rice
Trump said on social media that Japan "won't take our RICE, and yet they have a massive rice shortage. In other words, we'll just be sending them a letter, and we love having them as a Trading Partner for many years to come."
In Trump's post on his Truth Social platform, which singled out Japan in a way he rarely does online, he started by saying he wanted to give an example of how "spoiled" countries have become with respect to the United States.
His statement came a day after saying in a TV interview that he has no plans to roll back the hefty auto tariffs imposed on Japan, despite Tokyo's persistent opposition expressed in now-stalled tariff negotiations.
"I could send one (letter) to Japan: 'Dear Mr. Japan, here's the story. You're going to pay a 25 percent tariff on your cars,'" Trump said on Fox News.
During the interview that aired on Sunday, Trump also accused Japan of importing too few American cars. "They won't take our cars, and yet we take millions and millions of their cars into the United States. It's not fair," he said.
To curb its trade surplus with the United States, he said Japan could purchase "a lot of oil" and other goods from his country.
On Monday, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Trump plans to meet with his trade team this week to discuss tariff rates for many individual countries.
She told a press briefing that Trump will set the rates if countries "don't come to the table to negotiate in good faith."
In recent days, Trump and his officials have ramped up pressure on U.S. trading partners as a 90-day pause on country-specific tariffs, granted in a bid to facilitate negotiations, is set to expire on July 9.
Each year, Japan imports 770,000 tons of rice tariff-free under a "minimum access" agreement with the World Trade Organization. Of that amount, up to 100,000 tons is allowed to be imported for human consumption.
Any rice imported to Japan beyond the special quota is subject to a tariff of 341 yen (about $2.40) per kilogram.
Meanwhile, the country charges no tariffs on imported vehicles.
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Trump failed to reach a breakthrough trade deal when they held talks in Canada in mid-June on the fringes of a Group of Seven summit.
Japan's chief tariff negotiator, Ryosei Akazawa, was in Washington for four days through Sunday for his seventh round of ministerial talks on tariffs with the United States.
But there was a lack of tangible progress, with sharp differences apparently remaining over the Trump administration's April increase in the tariff on imported automobiles to 27.5 percent from 2.5 percent.
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