logo
Trump announces $550 billion Japan trade deal

Trump announces $550 billion Japan trade deal

Daily Mail​5 days ago
President Donald Trump announced he had reached a new trade deal with Japan, terming it 'the largest deal in history' as he celebrated with Republican lawmakers at the White House. The president announced a new 15 percent tariff on Japanese imports – down from a threatened 25 percent.
The pep rally came on a day Trump's White House was whipsawed by the Jeffrey Epstein controversy, with the president cheerfully proclaiming a win hours after tearing into predecessor Barack Obama. 'I just signed, and it was really helped a lot by our big, beautiful deal that we just did,' Trump said in the East Room of the White House at a reception with Republican members of Congress. 'But I just signed the largest trade deal in history, I think maybe the largest deal in history, Japan,' Trump said. He repeatedly gushed about its size, saying, 'This is, they say, the biggest deal ever made.'
Trump, who had earlier announced deals with Indonesia and the Philippines as an August 1 deadline he declared after pausing his 'reciprocal' tariffs approaches, told lawmakers there were more talks in the works. Failure to reach agreements after his administration promised '90 deals in 90 days' could spark yet another market meltdown, something Trump is eager to avoid as he touts surging markets. 'We have Europe coming in tomorrow,' said Trump, days after reports of the tariffs he could slap on the European Union.
Trump announced the deals minutes after posting about it on Truth Social. 'Japan will invest, at my direction, $550 Billion Dollars into the United States, which will receive 90% of the Profits,' Trump said, without spelling out how the investments would be calculated. Japan is already a top U.S. investor. Trump said it would create 'hundreds of thousands of jobs.' 'Perhaps most importantly, Japan will open their Country to Trade including Cars and Trucks, Rice and certain other Agricultural Products, and other things. Japan will pay Reciprocal Tariffs to the United States of 15 percent,' Trump wrote. 'This is a very exciting time for the United States of America, and especially for the fact that we will continue to always have a great relationship with the Country of Japan. Thank you for your attention to this matter!' Trump concluded.
Trump said the country was 'becoming very rich again,' although some of the market's recent gains came after Trump hit 'pause' on his tariff decisions and backed off his repeated threats to fire Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. Trump also dangled further talks. 'We're going to make a deal with Japan on the LNG in Alaska,' Trump said. A deal with Japan that puts off an escalatory trade war would restore some stability to a major trade relationship. Trump cranked up the pressure earlier this month when he threatened to slap a 25 percent tariff on Japan and South Korea – both key political allies – if they didn't reach an agreement by August 1.
He also lauded House Republicans who jammed through his 'big, beautiful bill,' and promised to lend them political support. 'We're going to make all those robo calls for you,' Trump said, on a day he once again threatened to go after 'no' vote Thomas Massie (R-Ky.). 'There's been no Congress like this Congress in terms of achievement,' Trump said.
He called out birthdays and anniversaries in the crowd, and spoke about House Majority Leader Rep. Steve Scalise after he suffered a shooting. 'He was going to be a goner,' Trump said. 'You look better now than you did then,' he told him. 'We're so grateful for you,' Housing Secretary Scott Turner told the president when Trump invited him to say grace. 'You are a tremendous leader and we thank God for you,' he told Trump before the prayer. 'Thank you for giving us favor to pass this big, beautiful bill,' Turner said during the prayer of the bill that passed the House 218-214 with Trump losing just two Republican votes.
Trump took the opportunity to praise Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, on a day he accused Barack Obama of 'treason' and applied pressure for him to be investigated over the origins of the Russia probe in 2016. 'Where's Tulsi? She's like hotter than everybody. She's the hottest one in the room right now,' Trump said. Trump repeated his claim that 'Obama cheated on the election,' after Obama slammed his earlier attacks. 'With your stamina, you know we can never sleep,' Speaker Mike Johnson told Trump when he took the microphone.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Several US executives to visit China this week: sources
Several US executives to visit China this week: sources

Reuters

time26 minutes ago

  • Reuters

Several US executives to visit China this week: sources

BEIJING, July 28 (Reuters) - A high-level delegation of American executives will travel to China this week to meet senior Chinese officials in a trip organised by the U.S.-China Business Council (USCBC), two sources with knowledge of the visit told Reuters on Monday. The visit coincides with the latest round of U.S.‑China trade negotiations in Sweden, where China's Vice Premier He Lifeng is meeting U.S. officials from July 27 to July 30 for a new round of economic and trade talks. The delegation will be led by FedEx (FDX.N), opens new tab Chief Executive Rajesh Subramaniam, the council's board chair, one of the sources briefed on the trip said. The South China Morning Post first reported the visit on Sunday, saying that executives from firms including Boeing (BA.N), opens new tab would be part of the delegation. Reuters could not confirm other CEO members of the delegation or which Chinese officials they would meet. Boeing declined to comment on the trip and deferred to USCBC. The U.S. government was not involved in the organisation of the visit, one of the sources said. The trip comes as Beijing and Washington work towards a summit between the two countries' leaders later this year, probably around the time of the APEC forum in South Korea October 26 - November 1, sources previously told Reuters. USCBC did not respond immediately to a request for comment. The business lobby previously organised similar visits to China by American CEO delegations in 2023 and 2024. The 2024 trip, also led by Subramaniam, included meetings with He and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, where executives discussed issues including market access. China faces an August 12 deadline to reach a durable deal with the White House or risk higher U.S. tariffs. U.S. officials are likely to extend the deadline by another 90 days as both sides work towards a more comprehensive deal, sources previously told Reuters. An extension of that length would prevent further escalation and help create conditions for the potential meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Why couldn't Britain have dealt with the EU like Trump?
Why couldn't Britain have dealt with the EU like Trump?

Spectator

time27 minutes ago

  • Spectator

Why couldn't Britain have dealt with the EU like Trump?

The more you look at the trade deal negotiated between the US and the EU, the more you want to ask: why couldn't Britain have dealt with the EU like that? Why has every UK Prime Minister since Theresa May acted so feebly in the face of the EU's tactics and ended up getting such a poor deal out of the EU? Trump has get pretty much everything he wanted. Goods imported into the US from the EU will in future be subject to tariffs of 15 per cent – half the rate that Trump had threatened but far higher than existed prior to 'Liberation Day' on 2 April. What has Ursula von der Leyen got in return? Nothing at all, other than the punitive tariffs being dropped. She has agreed to lowering tariffs on imports from the EU, in some cases to zero. She has also agreed to the EU buying more products from the US, including liquified natural gas (LNG), making a mockery of the EU's net-zero policy. Like Britain, the EU has wound down its fossil fuel industry on the pretext that it is yesterday's energy and we won't need it for much longer as we transition to clean renewables – but then it commits itself to buying increased quantities of LNG from the US. Say what you like about Trump, but it is easy to argue that he has proven a far stronger defender of his country's interests than Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak or Keir Starmer. Britain is nearly as important a destination for EU exports as the US: in 2024, 21 per cent of its exports went to the US and 14 per cent to Britain. Yet no Prime Minister has properly used this leverage to give Britain any advantage. May got nowhere in the end but would have committed Britain to becoming a rule-taker from the EU. Johnson agreed to place an internal UK border down the Irish Sea. Sunak did a little better in trying to resolve this, but then Starmer has put us back closer to where May wanted to take us: agreeing to EU rules on plant and animal products while having no say in the making of those rules. Why did UK Brexit negotiators never threaten punitive tariffs on German cars and French wine? Instead – and in spite of Theresa May's mantra of 'no deal is better than a bad deal' – we acted as if no deal was never an option. Simultaneously, we treated Trump – whose first presidential term lasted throughout the Brexit negotiations – as a kind of oaf who was destroying America's reputation. Had our leaders emulated him rather than scorned him we would be in a lot better position now. It all starts to look a bit different, however, if you look at Trump's trade negotiations from the point of view of consumers rather than producers and ask instead: has Trump really scored such a victory? If you are an American motorist who fancies a new car, your choice has just narrowed, and many of the options available have just increased in price. It is not just consumers, either, who may feel this is not quite the victory for the US it might look like on the surface. Most manufacturers rely on international supply chains. While tariffs may help snuff out some of their competition, they will in future face higher prices of raw materials and components. This does not appear to feature all that much in Trump's mercantilist mind. To him – and not just him, because many world leaders seem to think the same – exporting stuff is a strength and importing stuff a weakness. When you think of things that way, the US has been cheated by the lopsided tariffs which have long existed between the US and the rest of the world. Yet the fact remains that the US has done extremely well out of its low import tariffs. Its economy has grown far faster than those of its more protectionist rivals. So yes, it is easy to admire Trump's negotiating tactics. The whirlwind of the past few months, with threats followed by negotiations and flattery, has been a wonder to watch. It is sad that UK leaders have lacked the courage to act in such a brazen fashion towards the EU. Yet that doesn't mean that the US will end up being the big winner from higher import tariffs. On the contrary, overall the US economy is likely to grow less strongly as a result.

Starmer to have key Gaza meeting with Trump during state visit
Starmer to have key Gaza meeting with Trump during state visit

The Independent

time27 minutes ago

  • The Independent

Starmer to have key Gaza meeting with Trump during state visit

Sir Keir Starmer is scheduled to meet US president Donald Trump at Turnberry on Monday for discussions covering Gaza, trade, and Ukraine. Sir Keir intends to press Donald Trump for a ceasefire in Gaza and to alleviate the suffering of Palestinians, amidst growing calls for the UK to recognise Palestine as a state. Donald Trump confirmed that the meeting would address the existing trade deal between the US and UK, and also extensively discuss Israel. The mini-summit follows a bilateral meeting between Donald Trump and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, where a trade deal was agreed. The meeting takes place against a backdrop of intensifying debate over the Middle East crisis, including a public disagreement between Sir Bob Geldof and Kemi Badenoch regarding aid to Gaza.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store