TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said on Monday (Apr 21) Tokyo has no plan to terminate a trade deal struck with the US in 2019, but will keep voicing “grave concern” over inconsistency between the deal and President Donald Trump’s latest automobile tariffs.
During Trump’s first term as president, the US and Japan signed a bilateral trade deal in 2019 that cut tariffs on US farm goods, Japanese machine tools and other products while staving off the threat of higher US car duties.
Although the agreement did not cover automobile trade, then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he had received assurances from Trump that the US would not impose “Section 232” national security tariffs on Japanese car imports.
“Between President Trump and I, myself, this has been firmly confirmed that no further, additional tariffs will imposed,” Abe had told a news conference after signing the deal.
Japan, however, was not exempted from Trump’s latest 25 per cent tariff slapped on all automobile imports in the United States.
“Japan has grave concern over the consistency” with regards to the latest US automobile tariffs and the 2019 bilateral trade deal, Ishiba told parliament.
“We will continue to convey our stance (to the US) from this standpoint,” Ishiba said, although he said Japan has no plan to terminate the 2019 agreement altogether.
