US President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a “massive” trade deal with Japan, including a tariff rate of 15 percent, as a deadline looms for other major US trade partners to strike agreements before the end of this month.
Trump also agreed to reduce threatened tariffs on the Philippines, but only by 1 percentage point, after what he termed a successful meeting with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
In an attempt to slash his country’s colossal trade deficit, Trump has vowed to hit dozens of countries with punitive “reciprocal” tariffs if they do not hammer out a pact with Washington by Friday next week.
Photo: Reuters
The Japan agreement, along with another pact with the Philippines, means Trump has now secured five agreements.
The others were with the UK, Vietnam and Indonesia, which the White House on Tuesday said would ease critical mineral export restrictions.
“We just completed a massive Deal with Japan, perhaps the largest Deal ever made,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Photo: AFP
He said that under the deal, “Japan will invest, at my direction, US$550 Billion Dollars into the United States, which will receive 90 percent of the Profits.”
He did not provide further details on the plan, but said it “will create Hundreds of Thousands of Jobs.”
Japanese exports to the US were already subject to a 10 percent tariff, which would have risen to 25 percent on Aug. 1 without a deal.
Duties of 25 percent on Japanese vehicles — an industry accounting for 8 percent of Japanese jobs — were also already in place, plus 50 percent on steel and aluminum.
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba yesterday said that the autos levy had been cut to 15 percent, sending Japanese automaker stocks soaring.
The Nikkei 225 rose 3.5 percent.
“We are the first [country] in the world to reduce tariffs on automobiles and auto parts, with no limits on volume,” Ishiba told reporters.
“By protecting what needs to be protected, we continued the negotiations with an aim to reach an agreement that meets the national interest of both Japan and the United States,” he added.
However, Japanese Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy Ryosei Akazawa, who secured the deal in Washington, said that the 50 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum would remain.
Akazawa also said increased defense spending by Japan was not part of the agreement.
Trump also said that levies on the Philippines would be cut by 1 percentage point to 19 percent after hosting Marcos.
Welcoming Marcos to the White House, Trump called him a “very tough negotiator” and said: “We’re very close to finishing a trade deal — a big trade deal, actually.”
“It was a beautiful visit, and we concluded our Trade Deal, whereby The Philippines is going OPEN MARKET with the United States, and ZERO Tariffs,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The 19 percent rate is still above the 17 percent threatened by Trump in April.
Marcos’ press secretary Claire Castro told a news conference in Manila yesterday that the Philippine president had confirmed Trump’s zero tariffs statement, but only for “certain markets.”
Castro also downplayed the potential effects of a tariff regime, saying that just 16 percent of the country’s exports go to the US, with about two-thirds being electronic components not subject to the levies.
“To put it plainly, it has an impact on the country, but not that much,” she told reporters.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
One of two tropical depressions that formed off Taiwan yesterday morning could turn into a moderate typhoon by the weekend, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Tropical Depression No. 21 formed at 8am about 1,850km off the southeast coast, CWA forecaster Lee Meng-hsuan (李孟軒) said. The weather system is expected to move northwest as it builds momentum, possibly intensifying this weekend into a typhoon, which would be called Mitag, Lee said. The radius of the storm is expected to reach almost 200km, she said. It is forecast to approach the southeast of Taiwan on Monday next week and pass through the Bashi Channel
NO CHANGE: The TRA makes clear that the US does not consider the status of Taiwan to have been determined by WWII-era documents, a former AIT deputy director said The American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) comments that World War-II era documents do not determine Taiwan’s political status accurately conveyed the US’ stance, the US Department of State said. An AIT spokesperson on Saturday said that a Chinese official mischaracterized World War II-era documents as stating that Taiwan was ceded to the China. The remarks from the US’ de facto embassy in Taiwan drew criticism from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, whose director said the comments put Taiwan in danger. The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that a US State Department spokesperson confirmed the AIT’s position. They added that the US would continue to
The number of Chinese spouses applying for dependent residency as well as long-term residency in Taiwan has decreased, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday, adding that the reduction of Chinese spouses staying or living in Taiwan is only one facet reflecting the general decrease in the number of people willing to get married in Taiwan. The number of Chinese spouses applying for dependent residency last year was 7,123, down by 2,931, or 29.15 percent, from the previous year. The same census showed that the number of Chinese spouses applying for long-term residency and receiving approval last year stood at 2,973, down 1,520,
RSS