President Trump recently met with Japan’s brand new Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, to sign a major trade deal designed to deal with the world’s biggest antagonist: China. It's the second such deal in recent weeks, and it's another good one. Let's check out the latest big bucks deal from the Dealer-in-Chief!
Here are Five Fast Facts on the US-Japan trade deal:
- 🫂 Good Buddies - Japan is the US' fifth-largest trading partner. Last year, Japan bought $79.7 billion worth of American goods, and the US imported $148.2 billion worth of Japanese goods.
- 🚗 Vroom, Vroom! - More than one-third of the imports from Japan - about $52.3 billion - were cars and car parts.
- 💰 Wheeling And Dealing - Trump and Takaichi agreed to a trade deal where the U.S. will charge 15% tariffs on some imported Japanese goods, down from the 25% that was discussed earlier. Discounts, Prime Minister-san!
- 🤝 You Scratch My Back... - In exchange for the lower tariffs, Japan pledged to invest $550 billion in United States industry and open its market to things like American rice, cars, and defense equipment. All the good stuff, in other words.
- 👍 The Whole Point - As part of the bigger plan to stop China from controlling the global tech supply chain, the two nations signed a framework to cooperate on supplying critical minerals and rare earth metals to each other. Take that, China!
🔥Bottom line: This seems to be a win-win where both sides give a little and get a little, and a bigger purpose is also served. It was two world leaders, one tiny table, and a friendly handshake. Trump left saying “Best meeting ever!” while Takaichi live-tweeted a single cherry-blossom emoji. Hard to get better than that, right?
What do you think of this trade deal?
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