The Impressive TimesTokyo :US President Donald Trump characterized trade in cars between the US and Japan as unfair and floated the idea of keeping 25% tariffs on autos in place, little more than a week before higher duties are set to kick in across the board if a deal isn’t reached.
“So we give Japan no cars. They won’t take our cars, right? And yet we take millions and millions of their cars into the United States. It’s not fair,” Trump said during a Fox News interview that aired .
“Now, we have oil. They could take a lot of oil. They could take a lot of other things,” he said, referring to ways Japan might reduce the US trade deficit.
The comments show that the two sides still remain some distance from a deal and highlight the risk that Trump may stick with the 25% tariff on autos.
The interview came right after another round of talks between Tokyo’s top trade negotiator, Ryosei Akazawa, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Akazawa flew across the world to hold face-to-face talks in Washington, and while they initially met in person, two subsequent discussions took place on the phone.
Auto-related stocks on the Topix were down as much as 0.5% in Tokyo on Monday morning compared with a 1% gain in the overall index.
The duty on the car sector has emerged as one of the key sticking points in the talks as Washington focuses on its large deficit in the sector while Tokyo tries to protect a key pillar of its economy.
Akazawa has repeatedly said that the US’s 25% tariffs on cars are unacceptable, saying that Japan’s car industry has made an enormous contribution to the US economy through the investment of more than $60 billion and the creation of 2.3 million local jobs.
Japan’s point man on tariffs arrived late last week in Washington for the seventh round of talks and then extended his stay in hopes of hashing out a deal as the July 9 deadline for higher ‘reciprocal’ tariffs looms. Japan has insisted on keeping the sectoral tariffs on cars and other items included in the talks on the wider “reciprocal” levies.
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