One of the great US allies carries out a “unprecedented” response to Trump's customs duties
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba along with President Donald Trump and members of his office, photographed during a visit by the Japanese leader in the US on February 7, Photo: Kazuhiro Fujihara / Jiji Press Photo / Profimedia
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said on Friday that the imposition of new customs duties by the US administration, affecting Japan, announces “an imminent national crisis” and requires an “unprecedented” response from the country, informs EFE, quoted by Agerpres.
“This situation can be described as a national crisis,” said Prime Minister Ishiba in a parliamentary commission, emphasizing the serious impact that the customs duties announced on Wednesday can have on the Japanese economy in general and on its trade with the US in particular, taking into account not only by the general taxes of 24%, but also the increase to the tax to 27.5%.
The Japanese prime minister told the parliamentarians that the government must decide the most effective response to these new customs duties, leaving the door open to reprisals or raising the problem within the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Ishiba reiterated its disappointment and regret on the decision of US President Donald Trump to include Japan among the “beneficiaries” of his mutual taxes, despite the repeated urges of the Tokio Government to be exempted from them in virtue of close relations between the two countries and the interdependence between certain sectors of their economy.
The announcement of the imposition of customs duties made by the US president shocked the financial markets, the Tokio scholarship decreasing by almost 3% on Thursday and over 4% Friday, after the dawn of a trade war fueled concern about a global economic slowing.
According to several studies, the new tax targeting the car sector (representing about 30% of Japanese exports to the US) could cause a contraction of the Japanese economy within 0.2%-0.9%.
The Japanese executive also warned Washington that announced measures could reduce Japanese investments in the US.
Japan is the largest foreign investor in the US, one of its main trading partners and the foreign country whose companies depend on most American jobs in the manufacturer sector, according to the Japanese government data.
