It was unclear if Trump would make good his pledge to skip further trade negotiations with Japan and send it a letter with a specific tariff rate, on top of the 10 per cent already in effect on most trading partners. On Friday he said he had signed letters to 12 countries and they would be going out on Monday, but did not identify them.
He expressed doubt that a deal could be reached with Japan on Tuesday, and suggested he could impose a tariff of 30 per cent or 35 per cent on imports from Japan, well above the 24 per cent tariff rate he announced on Apr 2.
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Wednesday said he was determined to protect his country’s national interests as trade negotiations with the US struggled, noting that his country was the largest investor in the United States.
Tokyo has yet to secure a trade deal after nearly three months of negotiations as it scrambles to find ways to get Washington to exempt Japan’s automakers from 25 per cent automobile industry-specific tariffs, which are hurting the country’s manufacturing sector.
