Trump’s US-Japan trade deal is ‘not a good deal at all’: Analysis

Trump’s US-Japan trade deal is ‘not a good deal at all’: Analysis

US President Donald Trump says the US has reached a trade deal with Japan. Trump says the agreement will see Japan invest $550 billion in the country and that both countries will each pay a tariff of 15% on goods. The full details of the deal are yet to be released. But I just signed the largest trade deal in history. I think maybe the largest deal in history with Japan and that was done with Japan. They had their top people here and uh we worked on it long and hard and it’s a great deal for everybody. I always say it has to be great for everybody. It’s a great deal. A lot different from the deals in the past. I can tell you that. But uh we’re doing really well as a country. We’re strong. We have a lot of money flowing in. the tariffs are kicked in better than anybody other than me and a few of the people in the room uh thought could happen. Sajjida Takashita is dean at the University of Shizuoka’s graduate school of management informatics and innovation and he’s joining us from Shizuoka in Japan. Great to see you. Thank you for your time. Uh so US tariffs will go from 25 to 15% and the that 15% will be reciprocal. Do you think that’s a good deal overall? No, it’s not a good deal at all. People are focusing on numbers. You can see the Japanese market rising very sharply in back of this because many people had anticipated 25% and that’s been reduced to 15. But this is the game that poker game that you know uh the Trump delegates are playing. Uh be it 25 15 or 5% if there is no context or reasoning to it then it should be abolished. Uh, for example, automobile. Japan has zero tariff against American cars and he’s constantly claiming that we’re not buying American cars. Well, it’s not nothing to do with the United States, but simply uh, you know, US cars are not good enough for the Japanese. It doesn’t match, you know, uh, the Japanese consumers. That’s all it is. But, you know, um, to basically just only looking at numbers is what people are doing right now. And what we have to also be alarmed about is that what he’s saying or writing about could change the other day 180°. So let’s see more detail uh about the uh uh the whole scheme is what I’d like to say. Yeah, we are all waiting for those details including Prime Minister Isha. Um but if we look at automobiles, they are a huge part of US Japan trade. almost all of it like you said is one way from you know the US importing cars from Japan and that’s a fact that’s long irked Trump. Do you see this deal changing the direction of that trade at all? Well, his bullying will go through. Um but I don’t think you know Japanese consumers will be happy buying American cars. The fact is the Japanese buy for example German cars a lot. uh you know they’re all doing very well in Japan because they make good cars and Japanese consumers are very very sensitive and picky. So you know um I think you know that is the conclusion. I think however that said you know his bullying may open up some of the negativity of Japan the vested interest involved in issues like for example rice and meat where you know there is an unjustified unfair tariff against the United States um protected by vested interest of the likes of JA Japan agricultural corporates. So that could be you know uh uh changed through constructed destruction of a vested interest through his you know methodology that he’s adopting to the Japanese trade policies and the as you said the Japanese stocks did rally as a result of this announcement. You’re saying it’s because the market was expecting perhaps 25% and so 15% seems like a a a good compare to that. Um but do you think that Prime Minister Ishiba will be able to sell this to the Japanese people? That’s a good question because well as you know in the upper house election it was a devastating loss for the LDP the ruling party and a lot of it is being uh pointed at you know m Mr. Ishiba’s lack of leadership and uh well you know having negotiation United States is very difficult in the first place. Now he has to go through the second hurdle of convincing the diet as a whole in agreeing to this plan. So that is also becoming very very difficult. So he has a very very difficult task ahead and in fact even within LDP there are voices rising quite sharply about you know his recognization. So the stability of the political issues in Japan are becoming very very wobbly to say the least. Saja Takashita it’s always great to get uh your thoughts. Thank you for your time. Thank you.

President Donald Trump says the US has reached a trade deal with Japan.
Trump says the agreement will see Japan invest $550bn into the US,
and that both countries will each pay a tariff of 15 percent on goods – the full details of the deal are yet to be released.

Seijiro Takeshita is Dean at the University of Shizuoka’s Graduate School of Management, Informatics and Innovation.
He says people should look beyond the numbers in assessing whether the trade deal is good for Japan.

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