US-Japan Tariff Negotiations Stuck in Deadlock; Trump Threatens to Raise Tariffs to 35% | WPN World People News

Before the July 9th tariff grace period, Vietnam successfully reached an agreement with the United States, and Trump also told the media that he would not consider extending the deadline. For several countries that failed to reach an agreement, the US would directly determine the tariff rates. However, Japan, which started negotiations earliest and was originally seen as Trump's model for tariffs, has still not reached a consensus with the US. Trump expressed frustration during an interview, saying, "Japan is being very tough, they’ve been spoiled all this time."

Trump stated, "The US and Japan have a great alliance, but when it comes to trade, it’s very unfair. That era is over." He added, "I also informed Japan that if you can’t meet our demands, the tariffs you’ll pay could be 30% or 35%, or any other figure directly determined by the US." Trump implied that, in case of a deadlock, tariffs might even exceed the originally planned 24%. He complained, "Japan is clearly in need of rice but refuses to accept American rice," and "Japan doesn’t buy American cars but exports millions of cars." He continued, "The trade deficit between the US and Japan is huge, which is very unfair to America."

Japan’s Minister for Economic Revitalization, Akira Amari, was supposed to meet with US officials for seven rounds of talks, but he did not meet with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and returned home immediately. The market generally believes that the two countries will eventually reach an agreement, with Japan possibly being forced to make concessions. Former Japanese Ambassador to the US, Ichiro Fujisaki, commented, "In the end, we may reach a win-win result. But the US’s 'win' is in capital letters, and Japan’s 'win' can only be in lowercase."