The Guardian :
Donald Trump has announced a trade deal with Japan, potentially resolving weeks of fraught negotiations between the two allies which had caused economic uncertainty in Tokyo and mounting speculation over the future of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
“We just completed a massive Deal with Japan,” the US president announced in a post online, adding “Japan will invest, at my direction, $550 Billion Dollars into the United States.”
Ishiba said his country’s tariff negotiator had received the details of the deal and he would examine them before responding. “Our overarching concern is the interests of the nation,” he said.
US president Trump meets with Japan’s Economic Revitalisation Minister Ryosei Akazawa at the White House in April.
Japan walks line between recession and submission as it seeks to overcome Trump tariffs
In the post on Tuesday evening, Trump said Japanese imports would face a 15 per cent tariff, an improvement on the 25 per cent he threatened to impose from 1 August earlier this month.
It was unclear what tariff rate US imports to Japan would be charge at.
He also claimed that Japan would open its market to US products including cars, trucks, rice and certain agricultural products – many of which had proved to be a sticking point in negotiations.
Ishiba is facing growing opposition from within his own party after he vowed to stay on as leader after his coalition lost its upper house majority in elections last weekend, as well as their majority in the lower house in October last year. His position is widely regarded as untenable in light of the two consecutive electoral defeats.
After the deal was announced by Trump, Japan’s Mainichi newspaper reported that Ishiba would announce his resignation as prime minister by the end of next month.
According to media reports, Ishiba told his close associates that he would explain how he would take responsibility for the election loss once a solution was reached on trade negotiations.
