Higher tariffs loom for Japan
Japan’s hopes of being excluded from US President Donald Trump’s extra tariffs for imported vehicles appear to be in tatters after an official spoke about the policy set to come into force next month.
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick explained that Trump has no intention of excluding any country from the sweeping measures.
“If you’re going to tariff cars from anywhere, it’s got to be tariffing cars from everywhere,” Lutnick said during an interview with Fox Business.
He suggested all countries and regions exporting vehicles to the United States will be subject to the tariffs and stated Japan must not have “an unfair advantage” over South Korea or anywhere else, reports the Japan News.
Trump has announced plans to impose tariffs of about 25 per cent on imported vehicles from April 2, which will be a significant increase from the current 2.5 per cent for passenger cars.
The Japanese government met with officials in Washington this month asking to be excluded from the planned levies and sharing concerns about the impact the tariffs could have on Japan’s automotive industry.
