Trump says the US has achieved a trade deal with Japan

President Donald Trump says the United States has agreed to a “large -scale” trade deal with Japan, one of the largest trading partners in the country.

Japan has agreed to invest $ 550 billion ($ 407 billion) in the United States, while its goods sold in America will be taxed by 15% when they reach the country – below 25% Tariff that Trump threatened.

Trump said on social media that Japan will open its economy for goods in the United States, including cars, trucks, rice and some agricultural products.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba welcomed A message, saying that this is “the lowest figure so far among the countries with trade surpluses with the United States.”

“I just signed the biggest trade deal in history, I think maybe the biggest deal in history with Japan,” Trump announced at an event at the White House on Tuesday night.

“They had their best people here and we worked on it for a long time and hard. And that’s a lot for everyone. I always say it’s great for everyone. It’s a lot,” he added.

Ishiba said that on Wednesday, the agreement would mean that US vehicle rates and parts would be reduced to 15% of 25%.

However, the tax is over 10% Trump imposed on Japan and other countries when it stopped higher so-called reciprocal tariffs between April and July.

A quarter of Japan’s exports to the United States is from its critical automotive sector, representing almost 3% of its economy.

In 2019, the value of his car shipments was $ 410 billion (£ 300 billion), According to the US International Commercial AdministrationS

Ishiba said, “We were the first in the world to reduce car rates and auto parts without any restrictions on quantity.”

The United Kingdom cars, sent to the United States, are taxed at a lower 10% rate when they reach US coasts, but this is limited to 100,000 vehicles quotas.

Ishiba added: “The agreement does not include any reduction in tariffs from the Japanese country.”

However, American car markers were not pleased with the deal that reduces the rates for imports from Japan, while leaving taxes on imports from their plants and suppliers to Canada and Mexico at 25%.

Matus Blunt, President of the US Automobile Policy Council, a group representing Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, called the Japan Agreement a “bad deal”.

The BBC contacted the White House and the Japan Embassy in Washington for more details on the trade agreement.

The US has also announced trade agreements with the Philippines and Indonesia. US imports from the Philippines and Indonesia will be taxed by 19%when they reach America.

Indonesia will eliminate approximately 99% of the tariff barriers for goods in the United States, the White House said, while the deal with the Philippines involves the removal of car imports to the United States.

Removing its main tariff rate to 15% is “Japan’s best compromise at this stage,” Shigto Nagai told the Oxford Economics research firm to the BBC News.

The planned investment in the United States from Japan, included in the statement, “will be a huge impetus for US recovery, entering the Trump history to revive US production with more jobs,” he added.

In a letter sent to Japan this month, Trump threatened a 25% tariff for the country’s exports to the United States if there was no new trade deal reached before August 1, just above the percentage he announced during the so -called Liberation Day on April 2.

The April Tariffs Plan, which included obligations for many trading partners in the United States around the world, were stopped 90 days after the world market disturbance. This gave time to Tokyo’s sales representatives to negotiate with their colleagues in Washington.

Japan is the fourth largest economy in the world behind the US, China and Germany and India, the United Kingdom and France, according to the World Bank.

The Japanese Shares of Japan, Nikkei 225, was more than 3% higher on Wednesday in Tokyo, with strong stocks for shares in the automotive industry – including Toyota, Nissan and Honda.

The obvious deal comes as Ishiba is under pressure to withdraw after his liberal democratic party (LDP) lost his majority In the upper house of the country of elections over the weekend.

LDP had already lost its majority at Japan’s helpful lower house last year.