Japan Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Monday his country won’t make compromises to reach quick trade deal with President Donald Trump and he’s not eager to retaliate with tariffs.
Ishiba told Parliament that retaliatory measures would hurt people in Japan.
“I don’t think retaliatory tariffs would serve our national interests when we are hit by surging energy and food prices,” he said.
Trump imposed a 10% baseline tariffs on all U.S. imports on April 2. Seven days later, he paused most of his higher tariffs — which he called reciprocal — hours after they went into effect. Trump’s 10% baseline tariffs remain in place. Trump said after the 90-day pause, the higher reciprocal tariffs could come back into play.
Ishiba also said he’s not ready to make concessions for a quick trade deal.
“We do not intend to make one compromise after another to conclude negotiations swiftly,” Ishiba told a session of the Budget Committee of the House of Representatives, according to a report from Japanese news agency Kyodo News.
On the campaign trail and since inauguration, Trump has made unconventional promises about his tariffs. He has said tariffs will make the U.S. “rich as hell,” bring back manufacturing jobs lost to lower-wage countries in decades past and shift the tax burden away from U.S. families.
A tariff is a tax on imported goods. The importer pays the tax and can either absorb the loss or pass the tax on to consumers in the form of higher prices.
