Donald Trump says he could hit Japan with new tariffs

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Donald Trump said he would consider imposing tariffs on Japanese exports if the US trade deficit with the Asian country was not eliminated and pledged to unveil “reciprocal” tariffs on other nations next week.

Speaking at the White House alongside Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, the president warned that tariffs were an option to tackle the trade deficit with Japan, the most important US ally in the Indo-Pacific.

Trump said Washington and Tokyo would work together to cut the trade deficit, saying “they want fairness also”.

Asked by reporters as he sat beside Ishiba in the Oval Office if he would seek further concessions from Tokyo, Trump said: “I think it will be very easy for Japan. We have a fantastic relationship. I don’t think we’ll have any problem whatsoever.”

In 2024, the deficit in goods with Japan was $68bn, compared with $55bn in 2020 before the end of his first term.

The comments about new tariffs marked another escalation in Trump’s rhetoric, and brings the US closer to the brink of a multi-front trade war with some of its closest trading partners and security allies.

Trump also said that he had also not changed his mind about opposing Nippon Steel’s proposed $15bn acquisition of US Steel. The companies are suing the US government after the Biden administration blocked the deal in January.

The US president also said he would unveil “reciprocal tariffs” on unnamed countries next week, in a hint at the universal levies he has vowed to slap on imports into the US.

“I’ll be announcing that next week, reciprocal trade, so that we’re treated evenly with other countries,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday. During the presidential campaign last year, he warned repeatedly that he would impose a universal tariff on imports into the US.

Earlier this week Trump suspended until March 1 his plan to impose steep tariffs on Mexico and Canada, the US’s two largest trading partners, but proceeded with a 10 per cent levy on imports from China. Beijing responded with retaliatory tariffs that will take effect this weekend.