Japan demands "immediate revision of duties" from the US

Japan demands from the United States "an immediate revision of duties," otherwise it will be difficult to reach an agreement, Japanese Economic Recovery Minister Rei Akazawa told reporters after the In Washington, the fourth round of negotiations.

"(The measures on duties) are still regrettable. We demand an immediate review of the content (of the negotiations). Our position is that if this is not achieved, it will be difficult to conclude an agreement," the minister said.

At the same time, he noted that some progress had been made during the fourth round.

"The talks made sense to understand each other's position. Both we and the American side share the view that there is progress to reach an agreement. We will work to ensure that, defending the national interests of our country, as quickly as possible, an agreement is reached that would benefit the two countries — Japan and the United States," Akazawa said.

Negotiations lasted 130 minutes. Japan was represented by Economic Recovery Minister Rei Akazawa, the United States by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Latnik.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry in its release following the talks also noted that progress had been made. The parties agreed to hold another round of consultations before the leaders' meeting at the G7 summit in June.

Japan has already held four rounds of negotiations with the United States on duties. At the beginning of the first round, US President Donald Trump was present at the talks.

Before that, Japan fell under duties of 25% on steel and aluminum (March 12) and 25% on cars manufactured outside the United States (April 3). In Japan, the situation is compared to a national crisis, and in The media spread the expression "Trump shock" by analogy with the designation of the crisis of 2008-2009 "liman shock" from the name of the financial company Lehman Brothers Holdings, with the bankruptcy of which the global economic crisis began, and "crown shock", marking the economic crisis associated with the coronavirus pandemic.

The USA ranks first in Japan's exports. They account for 21.3 trillion yen ($146.5 billion). Almost a third is the export of cars. So far, duties on Japanese cars in the US have been 2.5%, after the introduction of additional duties — 27.5%. By the end of 2024, exports of Japanese cars to the United States amounted to 6.026 trillion yen (about $ 40 billion), which is 28.3% of all Japanese exports to the United States.

The Japanese government has repeatedly stated that it will continue to conduct explanatory work with the United States, proving that Japanese automakers have made direct investments in the United States in the amount of $ 61 billion and provided jobs to 2.3 million people. For the past 5 years, Japan has been the main investor in the United States, so the inclusion of Japan in the list of countries subject to duties is unfair.