Ryosei Akazawa, Japan’s Minister for Economic Revitalization and the representative for the Japan-U.S. tariff negotiations, was dispatched to the United States and explained on the 7th (local time) that the U.S. side would take timely measures to modify the “additional 15%” mutual tariff executive order to “flat 15%.” According to NHK, Akazawa also confirmed that the U.S. would announce an executive order to lower automobile tariffs as agreed when modifying the mutual tariff executive order.
The “mutual tariffs” newly set by the Trump administration came into effect at 12:01 a.m. on the 7th Eastern time (1:01 p.m. KST). Contrary to the Japanese government’s explanation that it was agreed to a “flat 15%,” a “additional 15%” was applied to Japan, causing controversy within the country.
Under the “flat 15%” system, products that don’t reach a 15% existing tariff rate are uniformly subject to the 15% rate, while products with an existing tariff rate exceeding 15% are not subjected to additional mutual tariffs. This was only applied to the European Union (EU) according to the White House’s mutual tariff executive order.
In response to the ongoing controversy, Akazawa visited Washington and held talks for about three hours with Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and for about 30 minutes with Treasury Secretary Scott Besant. In the discussions, the Japan-U.S. representatives reconfirmed the importance of steadily proceeding with efforts beneficial to both countries as per previous agreements, Akazawa explained.
He also reiterated the contents of the mutual tariff agreement and strongly recommended taking prompt actions to modify the executive order according to the agreement, as well as firmly requested the announcement of an executive order to lower automobile tariffs.
If the executive order is changed according to Akazawa’s statement, Japanese products would enter the U.S. market under more favorable conditions. For instance, under the “flat 15%” system, Japanese beef with an existing tariff rate of 26.4% would not have additional mutual tariffs applied, but under the “additional 15%” system, the beef tariff would increase to 41.4%. Conversely, for products like LED bulbs with a current tariff rate of 2%, the tariff would be 15% under the “flat 15%” or 17% under the “additional 15%.”