Trump imposes 25% tariffs on Japan and South Korea

Trump imposes 25% tariffs on Japan and South Korea

Well, look, the United States has a trade deficit with both South Korea and Japan. And today, in letters to both those countries, President Trump described those deficits as a major threat to our economy and our national security. So, back in April, the president announced a raft of tariffs against many countries, including these two, that triggered a stock market collapse, and some economists even questioned the stability of US government um policymaking. Um those tariffs were paused for negotiations. That pause expires this week. And so today we get these first two letters uh to Japan and South Korea telling them all the goods that they export to the United States will face this 25% tariff from August the 1st. In both cases, that is almost exactly the tariff that he first threatened them with three months ago. and he warned them if they retaliate he’ll just take their tariff and impose it on top of his 25%. So where does that leave the rest of the world Neil? Well today he was also taking a swipe at the brick so-called brick group of countries which is Brazil, Russia, uh India and China. He was accusing them of pursuing anti-American uh policies which they deny and he was telling any country that was thinking about aligning with them that they would also face an extra 10% tariff. So the number one question what about the UK? Well of course we negotiated we’re one of two countries in the world that negotiated a deal the economic prosperity deal a couple of months ago which the UK government likes to talk about a lot but there were some details in that which in fact were not settled. Um and critically one about the steel industry that faces 25% tariffs exporting to the USA. Um but that is meant to drop to 0% zero tariffs. But exactly how that’s going to happen has in fact not been worked out. I mean one person in the steel industry says they’re very worried. They feel like they’re left in the dark. And he put it to me like this. The UK government is working on this night and day. The US administration is not working on this night and day. And of course, that’s because it matters a lot more to us than it does to them.

President Trump is imposing 25% tariffs on all imports into the US from Japan and Korea.

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The move is a ratcheting up of trade tensions and saw the stock market drop several hundred points.

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