Japan urges US to swiftly implement auto tariff cut
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Japan's top trade negotiator Ryosei Akazawa urged the US to swiftly implement measures agreed upon in a bilateral trade deal.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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TOKYO – Japan’s top trade negotiator Ryosei Akazawa urged the US to swiftly implement measures agreed upon in a bilateral trade deal, including lowering automobile and auto parts tariffs, Japan’s government said on Aug 7.
The request was made during Mr Akazawa’s 90-minute meeting with US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick in Washington on Aug 6, Japan’s government said in a statement.
The statement also said Mr Akazawa sought confirmation and “immediate execution” of the two countries’ agreement on US levies for other goods imported from Japan.
The US agreed in a trade deal in July to lower existing tariffs on Japanese car imports to 15 per cent from levies totalling 27.5 per cent previously, but a timeframe for the change to go into effect was not announced.
Duties on other Japanese goods would be cut to 15 per cent from 25 per cent from Aug 7, according to the agreement.
Speaking in Parliament on Aug 5, Mr Akazawa said Japan wants to make sure goods such as Japanese beef, which already carries tariffs above 15 per cent, will not be charged the new 15 per cent rate as an additional tariff.
Japan argues the two countries had agreed its goods imported to the US would be exempt from such “stacking”, where they can be affected by multiple tariffs.
But a federal register attached to US President Donald Trump’s July 31 executive order that addressed tariff rates for many trading partners showed a “no stacking” condition applies to the European Union, but no such clarification was issued for Japan.
Japan’s Asahi newspaper reported on Aug 7, citing an unnamed White House official, that the US will stack the tariffs, adding 15 per cent on all Japanese imports without applying exceptions for items that already have tariff rates above 15 per cent.
Given such discrepancies, Mr Akazawa and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba have been under attack in Parliament and the domestic media for not crafting a written joint statement stipulating details of the trade deal with the US. REUTERS
