US To Tariff Japanese Autos 'To Be Fair'

2025-03-16 09:02:04

(MENAFN- Asia Times) Japan's hopes for an exemption from US tariffs on imported autos have been dashed.

On Friday, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Fox Business that,“If you're going to tariff cars from anywhere, it's got to be tariffing cars from everywhere. That would be fair, right? Don't make it so that Japan has an unfair advantage over Korea or Germany or anywhere.”

After Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's apparently successful meeting with President Donald trump at the White House in early February, the Japanese had been reminding themselves of the“promise” that Trump made to former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that he would not put additional tariffs on Japanese autos and auto parts.

The Nikkei, Japan's leading business daily, quoted a Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry spokesperson as saying,“That's still an important promise for us.”

For now, Trump appears likely to impose a 25% tariff on Japanese autos in early April. That would affect about US $40 billion dollars worth of annual Japanese exports, equivalent to nearly 30% of Japan's total exports to the US and about two-thirds of its trade surplus with the US.

According to government data, Japanese exports to the US hit 21.3 trillion yen last year (US$142 billion), while imports from the US were 12.5 trillion yen ($83 billion).

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