Japan ‘hurried slowly’ to win US trade deal

After months of fraught negotiations with the United States, Japan clinched a deal just days before punitive tariffs were scheduled to take effect, writes River Akira Davis from Tokyo

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When Ryosei Akazawa, Japan’s chief trade negotiator, departed Tokyo on Monday morning for the latest round of tariff discussions in Washington, he left behind a nation in political turmoil and bracing for a new jolt of economic pain.

Mr Akazawa’s party, the Liberal Democrats, had suffered a crushing defeat in elections the previous day, rendering it a minority governing party in both houses of Parliament.

Japan was also barrelling towards an Aug 1 deadline to reach a trade agreement with the United States. The Trump administration had vowed to impose a punishing 25% blanket tariff on Japanese goods shipped to the United States — the largest buyer of its exports.

The successful negotiation of a deal was widely seen as critical to the political survival of Shigeru Ishiba, Japan’s prime minister and a longtime ally of Mr Akazawa. But after more than three months and seven rounds of tariff negotiations, few trade experts were expecting a deal to come to fruition.

Turns out the eighth time was the charm.

In a social media post late in the US evening on Tuesday, President Trump declared that he had reached a “massive” trade deal with Japan. Japan had agreed to open its markets to more imports of American cars and rice, as well as invest $550 billion in the United States, he said.

In return, the president said that Japanese exports to the United States would be charged a tariff of 15%, lower than the 25% he was previously threatening. Critically, Japanese officials later said, car and auto part exports would be subject to a 15% tariff, lower than a separate and damaging 25% tariff that Trump had already imposed on the sector.