Donald Trump announces trade deal with Japan

US President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday, July 22, that he had reached a trade agreement with Japan , which includes 15% tariffs on Japanese products imported into the United States. "We just reached a major trade agreement with Japan," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, saying there had "never been anything like it." "Japan will pay 15% tariffs to the United States," he said, adding that the agreement with Tokyo would lead to the creation of "hundreds of thousands of jobs."

He also mentioned Japanese investments of "550 billion dollars" in the United States, without giving any details other than to say that "90% of the profits would be received by the United States . " "Probably more importantly," he said, Tokyo agreed to open Japan "to trade in cars and pickup trucks, rice and a number of other agricultural products, and other things." President Trump noted that, despite "these 15% reciprocal tariffs ," the United States and Japan "are still going to continue to have a great relationship."

Skip the ad

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, however, said Wednesday that he still needed to review the details of the agreement before he could comment. "As for the interpretation of the outcome of the negotiations, I can only discuss it after carefully reviewing the details of the talks and the agreement," he told reporters in Tokyo after Donald Trump's announcement in Washington. The 50% US surcharges currently imposed on Japanese steel and aluminum exports, for example, are not affected by the agreement, Japanese negotiator Ryosei Akazawa said Wednesday. "If you're asking me if the agreement applies to steel and aluminum, no, it doesn't," he told reporters in Washington.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on July 18 that a trade deal with Japan remained "possible" after a meeting in Tokyo with senior Japanese officials. The new tariffs are scheduled to take effect on August 1 with all countries, either as part of a trade deal if one is reached by then, or with the unilateral application by Washington of sometimes very high tariffs that were initially scheduled to be applied in early April. Regarding Japan, the Republican billionaire had threatened to impose 25% on all Japanese imports, in addition to the already severe surcharges applied to imports of vehicles, steel and aluminum.

Meanwhile, during a reception with Republican lawmakers to mark his six months in office, Donald Trump announced shortly after his message on Truth Social that "Europe is coming tomorrow and, the day after, we have others coming." He was referring to countries and regions whose negotiations for a trade agreement have not yet concluded at this stage. Earlier in the day, he detailed the terms of the trade agreement signed a week earlier with Indonesia, welcoming the opening of "the Indonesian market to American companies." According to a White House statement, however, this is an agreement on the framework for negotiations for a future trade agreement, which therefore remains to be built.

Washington announced that it had signed four trade agreements so far, the latest with the Philippines on Tuesday. It has also reached agreements with the United Kingdom and Vietnam, for example. The United States also concluded a de-escalation agreement with China, following a rise in trade tensions between the world's two largest economies following the announcement of so-called "reciprocal" tariffs.

This news sent carmaker shares soaring on the Tokyo Stock Exchange: around 01:10 GMT, Toyota jumped 11.65%, Nissan 8.54%, and Honda 8.95%, with Tokyo trading up 2.57%. The agreement provides for US auto tariffs to be reduced to 15%, the Japanese government confirmed. A 25% surcharge currently applies to cars and parts exported from Japan to the United States. According to NHK television and the Asahi Shimbun daily, these surcharges will be halved and will be added to the existing 2.5% tariff. Meanwhile, the Tokyo Stock Exchange jumped more than 3%.