Trump Says U.S. Has Reached Trade Deal With Japan

New York Times

7 days ago

President Trump said Tuesday that he had reached a 'massive' trade deal with Japan, helping to allay fears of heightened trade tensions between the United States and one of its closest Asian allies.
In a social media post Tuesday evening, the president wrote that Japan had agreed to open its country to imports of American cars, trucks, rice and other agricultural products, as well as invest $550 billion into the United States. He said that Japanese exports to the United States would be charged a tariff of 15 percent, lower than the 25 percent tariff he had threatened against the country's products if Japan did not strike a deal.
Details were not immediately available, and the Japanese government did not immediately make a statement about Mr. Trump's announcement. But Japan would be the most significant of the preliminary trade agreements that the Trump administration has announced thus far. The White House says that it has, so far, reached framework agreements with Britain, Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia, in addition to a trade truce that rolled back tariffs with China.
But many of these agreements appear to be rough outlines of deals, where some of the provisions still need to be negotiated. For Vietnam, it remains unclear whether the country's leaders have actually agreed to the terms that Mr. Trump announced.
In remarks Tuesday night, the president said they had 'worked on it long and hard and it's a great deal for everybody.' He also said that administration officials would be meeting again on Wednesday with representatives from the European Union, as the bloc also tries to stave off steep tariffs that would begin Aug. 1.
Japan and the United States had struggled for months to reach a trade agreement. One reason for the slow progress was that Japan had been heading toward a national election, ahead of which voters indicated they did not want the country to make big concessions in pursuit of a trade deal. Those elections were held in Japan on Sunday.
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