President Donald Trump has confirmed that he has no current plans to impose import tariffs on cars built in Japan.
Speaking to reports at the end of the G7 summit in France, Trump confirmed he and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reached an agreement-in-principle on trade which they aim to formalize in late September.
The US president has been threatening to hit vehicles built in Japan with steep tariffs for months.
These threats reached new heights in May when the U.S. Department of Commerce found that the importation of foreign-made vehicles and auto parts has been threatening national security in the U.S. since the 1980s. President Trump backed the findings but said he would delay imposing new tariffs on the sector until at least mid-November to allow the nation to negotiate trade deals with Japan and the European Union, Bloomberg reports.
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“It’s one of the reasons we made the deal,” Trump said at the G7 Summit. “It’s something I could do at a later date if I wanted to but we’re not looking at that. We just want to be treated fairly.”
Under the agreement, Japan would cut tariffs on U.S. agricultural goods and purchase large quantities of American wheat and corn. In return, the U.S. would cut tariffs on some industrial goods from Japan. Trump says the U.S. is also close to reaching a trade deal with the European Union.
“We made a great deal with Japan and we’re very close to maybe making a deal with the EU, because they don’t want tariffs, it’s very simple. They don’t want to tax cars, Mercedes-Benz, BMW,” he said. “I think we’re going to make a deal with the EU without having to go that route. I may have to go that route but maybe not.”
