Frustration mounts as Japan questions details of Trump’s trade ‘deal’ Tensions are running so high here that Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, fighting for his political survival after a humiliating electoral defeat last month, had to try to explain the unusual, vague deal his government struck with President Donald Trump on July 23. .......... “The other party [Trump] is not a normal person,” Ishiba told frustrated lawmakers
pressing for more detail in a session at the Japanese parliament this week, asserting that his counterpart doesn’t play by the rules of conventional trade agreements and unilaterally changes the rules. “In negotiations like this, implementation is far more difficult than reaching an agreement.” ........... Late last month, the two sides announced they had reached a trade deal but it essentially amounted to a handshake agreement. With no provisions committed to a formal document, the fact sheets that both governments released have conflicting information. ........... In their announcement, both countries said the United States would impose a 15 percent tariff on goods from Japan. Tokyo said any item already subject to tariffs higher than 15 percent would be exempt from the new taxes. But the executive order Trump signed last week suggested the rate would be applied on top of existing levies, including beef, which faces a 26.4 percent tariff. ............ Ryosei Akazawa, Japan’s chief trade negotiator, traveled to Washington on Tuesday to try to sort out the discrepancy but just after he landed, the U.S. interpretation was published in the Federal Register. On Thursday, Akazawa announced that the two sides had agreed to Japan’s interpretation. The White House has yet to release a public statement. .......... “I think Japan, South Korea, and other allied countries feel the same — that even toward strong allies, Trump tariffs are imposed without mercy,” Itsunori Onodera, policy chief for Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said in an interview. “This shows how difficult the U.S. is as a country to understand in terms of balancing its security alliance and trade relationships.” ........ “Compared to that time [the first term], I feel Trump has become more arrogant. Even just looking at the Trump tariffs, he now imposes U.S. policies more unilaterally,” Onodera said. ......... Japan also wants to ensure its auto tariffs are set at 15 percent, as the two sides agreed in their deal — a lower rate than the 27.5 percent the U.S. imposed, but still a concern to a key Japanese industry. But the administration has not specified a timeline for when it would take effect, and Japanese officials are urging Washington to implement it as soon as possible — to no avail. ................ Another point of contention is the $550 billion investment plan that Japan pledged in exchange for lower tariffs, a hallmark of the deal. Trump this week said the U.S. would be free to use the money to invest as Washington deems fit....... “I got a signing bonus from Japan of $550 billion — that’s our money. It’s our money to invest, as we like,” Trump told CNBC. ......... But Ishiba has maintained that the process would be led by Japanese companies and backed by financial institutions affiliated with the Japanese government, which would offer up to $550 billion in equity investments, loans and loan guarantees......... The Japanese government does not have the power to compel Japanese companies to invest in the U.S., let alone the Trump administration. ................ These differences have revealed the fragility of agreements with the Trump administration and how “incredible, untrustworthy” Washington can be, said Ryo Sahashi, international politics professor at the University of Tokyo’s Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia. .......... For Japan, the most difficult phase of negotiating with the U.S. is only just beginning, Sahashi said, likening the current moment to a popular gathering spot on the hike up Mount Fuji before the daunting ascent to the summit. .......... “Everything is very uncertain, and could be changed. This time [with the confusion on reciprocal tariffs], our deal was almost flipped over,” Sahashi said. ............ But Akazawa, the negotiator, told lawmakers this week that forcing a written agreement would have slowed him down in his talks with Washington — and that attempting to formalize details in writing with a U.S. leader who tends to change his mind, and is in talks with dozens of countries, is a fruitless endeavor. .................... Instead, Akazawa appears to be resorting to emergency trips to Washington and flattery to keep the two sides on the same page. He has even adopted new nicknames on social media for Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent: “Rato-chan” for Lutnick and “Be-chan” for Bessent......... The suffix “chan” is generally used for closest friends or young children, and carries connotations of cuteness. Hello Kitty, for example, is known as “Kitty-chan.” ......... “My discussion with #Ratochan, a nice guy full of love for Japan, went quite well. I also renewed my friendship with #Bechan, a huge Japanophile,” Akazawa posted on X Friday before heading back to Tokyo. ............... “I think that the Japanese expectation is that Trump will have a lot of other issues to deal with, whether it’s 80-some other countries to negotiate tariff agreements with or whether it’s [the] Jeffrey Epstein [scandal], or Ukraine,” Fukushima said.......... Yet U.S. officials have indicated that they plan to keep a close eye on the deal with Japan: “We will evaluate it every quarter. And if the president is unhappy, then they will boomerang back to the 25 percent tariff rate, both on cars and the rest of their products,” Bessent told Fox News last month. ............ Glen S. Fukushima, former president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan, said the Japanese and other allies have figured out Trump’s affinity for flashy announcements — and “at least for a while, that’s enough to satisfy him.”
............... “I think that the Japanese expectation is that Trump will have a lot of other issues to deal with, whether it’s 80-some other countries to negotiate tariff agreements with or whether it’s [the] Jeffrey Epstein [scandal], or Ukraine,” Fukushima said........... Yet U.S. officials have indicated that they plan to keep a close eye on the deal with Japan: “We will evaluate it every quarter. And if the president is unhappy, then they will boomerang back to the 25 percent tariff rate, both on cars and the rest of their products,” Bessent told Fox News last month. ............. That means more trouble may be ahead between Washington and Tokyo, Fukushima said. Given the current gaps in understanding, “it is likely that the U.S. will conclude that the Japanese are not living up to their commitments,” he said. ........ “The Japanese hope is that three and a half years from now, Trump will leave the scene and everything will be forgotten,” Fukushima said.
日本愛溢れるナイスガイ、#ラトちゃん との話し合いは割と上手く行きました。
— 赤沢りょうせい (@ryosei_akazawa) August 8, 2025
大親日家の #ベッちゃん とも旧交を温めました。#大阪・関西万博 への米国代表団団長としてご来日時にプレゼントした #赤松健参議院議員 の描いたポートレートを執務室に飾ってくれていました。
明朝帰国の途に就きます。 pic.twitter.com/kIFwqvi91h
‘He is completely upset’: Why Trump scrapped an India trade deal India appeared on the fast track to a trade deal........ An early White House visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi led to months of negotiations. By July, the Indians believed they had struck an agreement and that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer were simply waiting on President Donald Trump’s approval. .......... The unraveling of what had appeared to be a promising trade dynamic between the U.S. and one of the world’s fastest-rising economies illustrates the precarious nature of crafting an economic partnership with a mercurial Trump administration that has freely used high tariff rates to try to bend the world to its will. ......... “We are in a situation now where he is completely upset with India, and the 25 years of effort to build a relationship seems to be going down in 25 hours,” said Mukesh Aghi, the president and CEO of the U.S.-India Strategic Partnership Forum. “We need to arrest this in some manner… because the relationship is critical for both nations.” ............. The clash also underscores the challenging position the U.S. is in as its hefty tariffs push countries like India and Brazil closer to Russia and China. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva spoke with Modi on Thursday as the Brazilian leader calls for a joint response to Trump’s tariffs from countries that are part of the so-called BRICS group of emerging economies. ....... The president himself said he believed a deal with India was imminent. ........ "We're very close to India, and ... we could possibly make a deal with (the) EU," Trump said in mid-July. ......... India bought $52.7 billion worth of Russian oil last year, some of which it then refined and sent to Europe. ........ India argues that its Russian oil purchases are solely about maintaining its own energy security and has complained that it is being singled out. Other purchasers of Russian energy like the EU, the largest buyer of Russian natural gas, and Turkey, a significant purchaser of Russian coal, have not been targeted by the administration. ......... Trump, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday, suggested that other countries might soon face similar so-called secondary sanctions over their purchases of Russian oil. ........... Still, trade talks between the two countries continue. An agreement ahead of the new Aug. 27 deadline could prevent India from ever having to weather the 50 percent tariffs.
Trump and Putin’s phone calls last for hours because of Russian president’s ‘monologues,’ report says the Kremlin’s leader’s penchant for launching into long, grievance-based monologues ........ Their conversations are “typically friendly,” the WSJ’s sources said. Still, whereas Trump likes to talk up the prospect of improved U.S.-Russian relations through enhanced economic cooperation, Putin commonly “lists his grievances and core desires,” such as the international community’s refusal to recognize his country’s claims over Crimea and the Donbas. ............ He complained recently: “I go home, I tell the first lady, ‘And I spoke with Vladimir today. We had a wonderful conversation.’ She said, ‘Oh, really? Another city was just hit.’”
A third of CEOs plan to axe jobs over the next year—and most now say they’ll pass on new tariff costs to their customers
So, About Those Big Trade Deals If there’s anything Donald Trump loves more than tariffs, it’s a deal. So you can understand his excitement lately. Over the past few weeks, the president has announced tariff-related deals with three major trading partners—the European Union, Japan, and South Korea—that have been hailed as major victories for the United States. In each case, America’s partners agreed to accept 15 percent tariffs on their exports to the U.S. while lowering trade barriers on American goods and promising to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in the U.S. economy—in essence paying Trump to impose trade restrictions on them.
“Europe Caves to Trump on Tariffs” read a representative New York Times headline. .......... boasting that, with the completion of these deals, the administration had successfully “remade the global order.” ......... But upon closer inspection, Trump’s trade deals aren’t nearly as impressive as they sound. In fact, they aren’t really trade deals in the traditional sense, and they might not benefit the U.S. at all.
.............. the excessive restrictions that other countries had imposed on American goods—including not only tariffs but also currency manipulation, value-added taxes, and subsidies to domestic firms—and vowed not to back down on tariffs until those countries lowered them. ......... The announcements of the new deals purport to have delivered on this promise, giving Americans “unprecedented levels of market access” to Europe, “breaking open long-closed markets” in Japan, and making South Korea “completely OPEN TO TRADE with the United States.” But the details of the deals, which remain sparse, tell a very different story. None include agreements by trading partners to meaningfully reform their tax or regulatory codes, strengthen their currencies, or reduce the barriers that have long been major sticking points in prior trade negotiations. Instead, the announcements are full of vague statements of intent—“The United States and the European Union intend to work together to address non-tariff barriers affecting trade in food and agricultural products” (my emphasis)—and references to things such as “openings for a range of industrial and consumer goods.” ............ The main concrete action that the EU agreed to was to eliminate its tariffs on American industrial products. This sounds impressive unless you’re aware that the average EU tariff rate on nonagricultural goods prior to the deal was just 1 percent. The main difficulty in trade negotiations with the EU has long been its barriers on agricultural products, which appear to have been untouched by these deals. South Korea and Japan, meanwhile, agreed to allow more American-made cars into their markets—which also sounds great until you realize that the main reason American companies don’t sell a lot of cars to those countries is the fact that almost nobody wants to drive a truck or SUV in Tokyo or Seoul. Lower trade barriers won’t change that.
............ What about the investments? According to the announcements, South Korea, Japan, and Europe have respectively pledged to invest $350 billion, $550 billion, and $600 billion in the United States (In an interview with CNBC, referring to the EU investment, Trump claimed that “the details are $600 billion to invest in anything I want. Anything. I can do anything I want with it.”) The EU has also agreed to purchase an additional $750 billion of American oil and gas. Those are big numbers, but they might not add up to much in the real world. The EU has no authority to require European companies to invest in the U.S. or buy its products. What the Trump administration touted as “commitments” were mostly rough numbers based on what European companies were already planning to invest and buy. “We can’t force the company to do anything, nor will be able to pretend that we can, but we can talk to them, we can get their intentions, and we can transmit that as a faithful indication to our partners in the U.S.,” Olof Gill, a spokesperson for the European Commission, the EU’s trade-negotiation body, said after the deal was announced. ............. The “investments” from Japan and South Korea, meanwhile, might not be investments at all. Shortly after the deal with Japan was announced, the country’s top trade negotiator said that he anticipated only 1 or 2 percent of the $550 billion fund would come in the form of direct investment; the rest would mostly consist of loans that would need to be repaid with interest. South Korean officials have made similar statements. “These numbers bear no relation to any conception of reality,” Brad Setser, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who served as a trade adviser to the Biden administration, told me. “Everyone has figured out that Trump really likes big numbers to sell his trade deals and doesn’t need much substance to do so.”
Recent history supports this view. As part of Trump’s first-term trade deal with China, Beijing agreed to increase its annual purchasing of American goods by $200 billion. In the event, it didn’t increase its purchasing at all. ............ ...... ..If America’s trading partners didn’t agree to meaningfully lower barriers to U.S. imports, and if their promises of investment are likely vaporous, then the only real concession that Trump’s tariffs have won is … the right to impose tariffs. This means that the value of the deals comes down to the value of the tariffs. ...... ............ Tariffs can help domestic producers by making their foreign competitors’ products more expensive. But tariffs can also hurt them, by raising the costs of the inputs they import to make their products. Several studies of the tariffs imposed during Trump’s first term, which were much smaller and more targeted, found that manufacturing employment either stayed level or actually fell as a result. The ultimate result of the current wave of tariffs is yet to be determined, but so far, since Liberation Day, the manufacturing sector has shed tens of thousands of jobs and investment in new factories has fallen. A quarterly survey conducted by the National Association of Manufacturers in May found that optimism among manufacturing firms had fallen to its lowest point since the height of the coronavirus pandemic; trade uncertainty and raw-material costs were cited as top concerns
. ....................... the deals actively undermine key American industries. Foreign cars, which represent the single largest American import from Japan and South Korea and the third largest from the EU, will face 15 percent tariffs. That is far lower than the rate American car companies have to pay to import car parts, which are tariffed at 25 percent, and crucial car-building materials like steel and aluminum, which are tariffed at 50 percent ........................ As Jim Farley, the CEO of Ford, said in a recent interview, foreign competitors such as Toyota now have a $5,000 to $10,000 cost advantage over American-made vehicles. Ford projects that it will lose $2 billion in profits this year alone because of higher tariffs; General Motors forecasts losses of $4 billion to $5 billion by the end of the year.
He Turned Around Detroit as a Democratic Mayor. Now He’s Ditching the Party. Mike Duggan, this city’s mayor since 2014, ditched his longtime party in December and is running for Michigan governor as an independent. ............ He said his mayoral support of certain pro-business projects that delivered jobs and helped neighborhoods upset some progressives........ “The identity of the Democratic Party is we hate Republicans in general and we hate Donald Trump specifically,” he said. “That is the only unifying principle of the Democratic Party today. They disagree on everything else.” ................ “He was a proud Republican: stand up to the Russians, balance the budget, cut taxes,” he said of his father. “The Republican Party doesn’t stand for those things today, and the Democratic Party used to be focused on leveling the playing field for the blue-collar workers and for people in the rural areas. Today, those folks don’t think the Democratic Party speaks for them at all.” ................ Both major parties are viewed negatively by a majority of Americans, but the Democratic brand is in especially bad shape. The most recent Wall Street Journal poll showed the party’s image at its lowest point in the news organization’s surveys dating back to 1990, with 63% of voters holding an unfavorable view of the party. ................ He mostly drives himself to meetings and events in his Detroit-made Jeep Grand Cherokee, but that might get harder to do as a statewide candidate. .......... Asked if he would exit the race in the fall of 2026 if he is trailing the Democratic nominee, Duggan turned the question around. “I’m hoping that the Democrat gets out,” he said. ...... “The ground is rumbling under the feet of both parties and they can’t feel it because they are so busy shouting at each other,” he said.
