Japan has sought assurances from \u200bthe U.S. that Tokyo will not be put at a disadvantage under Washington’s latest tariff measures, urging that \u200ba potential 15% tariff not be applied to Japanese goods, \u200bits trade minister said on Friday. Minister \u2060of Economy, Trade and Industry Ryosei Akazawa said he made the request during a \u200btwo-hour meeting in Washington \u200cwith U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Akazawa briefed reporters after the meeting. After the U.S. Supreme Court knocked down some of \u200bPresident Donald Trump’s key tariffs in February, the U.S. imposed a new 10% blanket levy that could rise to 15%, generating new global uncertainty about the trade \u200cdeals struck \u200clast year and the tariff \u200brates importers now face. Akazawa said both governments reaffirmed their commitment to last year’s trade deal, which formalised a baseline 15% tariff on nearly all Japanese imports, down from 27.5% on autos \u200band initially threatened 25% on most other goods. “We requested that Japan’s tre
atment under the new tariff rules would not become less favorable than what was agreed last year,” \u200bAkazawa said, noting that Trump’s new blanket levy could otherwise raise costs for certain Japanese export items. He declined to say how the U.S. side responded. Akazawa added that he and Lutnick also discussed a series of projects under Japan’s $550-billion U.S. \u200cinvestment pledge, as well as cooperation on energy and critical minerals, ahead of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s visit to Washington on March 19. Reuters has previously reported \u2060that Japan and the \u200bUnited States are working to include a nuclear power project involving Westinghouse in the second round of deals under the investment commitments Tokyo made as part of a U.S. \u2060tariff agreement. Last month, \u2060they announced the first round \u2060of three projects worth a combined $36 billion, covering offshore drilling, natural gas production and synthetic diamonds. The U.S. Commerce Department said on X that Lutnick and Akaz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Japan has sought assurances from \u200bthe U.S. that Tokyo will not be put at a disadvantage under Washington’s latest tariff measures, urging that \u200ba potential 15% tariff not be applied to Japanese goods, \u200bits trade minister said on Friday. Minister \u2060of Economy, Trade and Industry Ryosei Akazawa said he made the request during a \u200btwo-hour […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n