President Trump signed an executive order to officially implement the recent agreement between the United States and Japan. The agreement, announced in July, “lays the foundation for a new era of United States-Japan trade relations grounded in principles of reciprocity and our shared national interests,” Trump’s order says.
The agreement further establishes a “tariff framework that levels the playing field for American producers and accounts for American national security needs” and will “reduce the United States trade deficit, boost the economy of the United States, and address the consequences of the United States trade deficit, including by strengthening the manufacturing and defense industrial base of the United States.”
According to the agreement, the United States will “apply a baseline 15 percent tariff on nearly all Japanese imports entering the United States, alongside separate sector-specific treatment for automobiles and automobile parts; aerospace products; generic pharmaceuticals; and natural resources that are not naturally available or produced in the United States,” while Japan will provide “American manufacturing, aerospace, agriculture, food, energy, automobile, and industrial goods producers with breakthrough openings in market access across key sectors.” This includes an expedited process of rice procurements.
As part of the agreement, Japan will invest $500 billion into the United States, a move that Trump said is the “largest deal ever made” between the two nations. “This is what happens when you have strong leadership and put America First,” he told reporters in July.
The investments will add hundreds of thousands of jobs for Americans, contribute to domestic manufacturing, and “secure American prosperity for generations,” the order declared.
