Trump sets 15% tariff on Japanese imports as part of investment agreement

President Donald Trump said Tuesday on Truth Social that his administration had reached a deal with Japan, one of the largest U.S. trading partners, to lower its tariff rate to 15% as part of a sweeping trade agreement

President Donald Trump said Tuesday on Truth Social that his administration had reached a deal with Japan, one of the largest U.S. trading partners, to lower its tariff rate to 15% as part of a sweeping trade agreement.

That rate is lower than the 24% that Trump threatened Japan with on April 2 and the 25% he said he would hit Japanese imports with in a letter on July 7. Before Trump’s current term, the effective U.S. tariff rate on Japanese imports was less than 2%, according to World Bank data.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba confirmed the agreement, saying the 15% rate was the lowest so far among countries that sell more goods to the United States than they buy from it.

“We have exerted all our efforts to protect our national interests,” he told reporters in Tokyo on Wednesday. “Among the countries that have a trade surplus with the United States, we have achieved the greatest results.”

Aug. 1 is the latest deadline Trump has imposed on countries to make deals to avoid tariff rates that Trump himself had set in dozens of letters he fired off on social media. Even though that deadline had been delayed before, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday on Fox Business Network that it was a “pretty hard deadline.”