Donald Trump said that Japan would accept imports from Fords huge F-1550 pickup trucks, in the recent sign that the two countries contradicted a trade agreement that the US President announced last month.
His comments came to Tokios Top negotiators to Washington to push the Trump government to pursue a promise to reduce tariffs to cars and auto parts to 15% compared to the current crippling of 27.5%.
“You take our cars,” said Trump on Tuesday in a telephone interview about Japan. “You take the very nice Ford F-1550, which works very well. And I am sure that we will do very well there and do other things that do very well here will also do well there.”
Confusion depends on various details of a commercial business between the United States and Japan, which has a concern about his enforcement in Japan, especially in terms of cars. The rhetoric of the Trump management towards trade agreements has often shown inconsistencies with their partners and aroused doubts about their livelihood.
“This is an extremely urgent matter, so the government will do its best to ensure its implementation,” said Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba about the deal in a parliamentary meeting held on Tuesday.
The US car tariffs on Japan are now set to 27.5% -a combination of earlier 2.5% rate and new 25% used by Trump. Although a cut to 15% would reduce the blow, this rate would still affect a sector that has long been a main support of the Japanese economy.
“It is worth noting that the implementation of the US AC agreement lasted 54 days,” said Japanese negotiator Ryosei Akazawa when he was asked after arriving in Washington on Wednesday morning after the Japan period on Wednesday morning.
Another question is whether the comprehensive 15% tariff is stacked in addition to the existing prices or whether all current taxes are standardized to 15%, which is a different potential deviation from the USA and Japan’s understanding of the trade agreement.
Although Akazawa claimed that taxes are cut to 15% and are not added to the current interest rates, an executive regulation is released Last week, the 15% cut only showed the European Union and would not be implemented for Japan.
“With this tariff rate there are many details, so we try to discuss these points in detail,” added Akazawa.
While Trump has long complained that US cars are unpopular in Japan, most experts agree that this is due to the lack of vehicles that are suitable for the market and not on trade barriers.
The Ford F-1550 mentioned in the interview is more than two meters wide and probably limited its benefits on the streets of Japan, even without a mirror, many of which are less than four meters wide for two lanes, according to a government report published in 2012.
In the same interview with CNBC, Trump described the 550 billion dollar investment package, which Japan matched in trade agreements, a “signing bonus”, similar to that of a baseball player.
“I received a signature bonus from Japan of 550 billion US dollars. This is our money. It is our money to invest as we would like,” he said.
The Japanese side has explained that only 1% to 2% of the total amount will be actual investments, the rest being loans and loan guarantees. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said that the investments in the behest of private companies are made and that both Japan and the US
