 "President Donald Trump speaks during a roundtable at \"Alligator Alcatraz,\" a new migrant detention facility at Dade-Collier Training and Transition facility, on Tuesday, in Ochopee, Fla. AP file")
The US and Japan may not reach a trade deal at all, President Donald Trump said days ahead of the expiration of a pause on reciprocal tariffs as countries scramble to work out agreements with Washington.
“We’ve dealt with Japan. I’m not sure if we’re gonna make a deal, I doubt it, with Japan. hey and others are so spoiled from having ripped us off for 30, 40 years that it’s really hard for them to make a deal,” Trump said.
In April, Trump briefly suspended for 90 days so-called reciprocal tariffs on a slew of countries, including Japan, which faced a further 24 per cent, but imposed them on China.
However, after the pause went into effect, Japan was subjected to the universal 10 per cent rate.
His comments came days after he threatened to impose higher tariffs on Japan after claiming that the country does not want to buy rice grown in America.
Trump’s remark came during a visit by Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya to Washington for a Quad meeting, alongside officials from Australia and India. It also followed Japan’s tariff negotiator, Ryosei Akazawa, making his seventh trip to Washington for trade talks just last week. While Japan remains a crucial trade partner and security ally of the US in East Asia, its relationship has been strained by Trump’s tough stance on tariffs.
The issue of cars and rice
During negotiations, Japan and the US have covered a slew of industries, but nothing seems to be convincing Washington. Tokyo has vowed to purchase more American energy products and defence equipment and offered help to the US in shipbuilding.
Apart from Trump’s grievance of Japan is not buying enough rice from the US, the president also believes that it is unfair that Americans buy more Japanese cars than Japanese buy American-made vehicles.
Impact Shorts
View AllTrump and US trade officials point to factors like differing safety standards as the reason for low American car sales in Japan, claiming these create an unfair disadvantage. Meanwhile, some industry insiders argue that Japanese consumers simply prefer smaller, locally-made vehicles.
Trump won’t extend deadline
Trump said on Tuesday he was not thinking of extending the July 9 deadline for countries to negotiate trade deals with the US.
“We’ve dealt with Japan. I’m not sure we’re going to make a deal. I doubt it,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he returned to Washington from a trip to Florida.
With inputs from agencies