JAPAN TO STRIKE BACK AGAINST THE US STEEL TARIFFS POLICY

According to officials, Tokyo is taking break from the newly adopted peace-making approach as Japan is looking forward to strike back against the steel tariffs imposed by the U.S. further adding by that Japan will soon be directing towards the step which China has already taken against the tariffs, will soon be seen telling World Trade Organization that in return to the tariffs imposed by U.S., Japan also believes to impose tariffs on U.S. goods which is equivalent to the damage they are going through. As the U.S. has imposed 25% tariffs on steel due to the reason that abundance of the imports endangered U.S. national security by dejecting American steelmakers, alongside the U.S. gave exemption to few countries but Japan is not given the permission, which created an irascibility in them as their steel has been regarded as a national security threat by Trump’s administration. At the beginning Tokyo’s response was focused on inducing Trump to make his mind for them but he did not. As a replacement for, the U.S. desires to put the steel concerned issue in two-way table talks with Japan intended at winning maximum trade concessions in autos area. The U.S. Ambassador to Japan, Mr. William Hagerty spoke at The Wall Street Journal’s CEO council meeting that we are planning to move quickly to get something done soon on trade. One of the Japanese official who is a part in international economic relations said that we have tried convincing the U.S. by telling them that we are allies yet it could not work. China has retaliated and EU is preparing to retaliate. Now waiting for the discussions to bring some fruitful results but if it could not worked out we will then route to WTO measures. Japan would not work out with the same trade plan South Korea is working that they fled the steel tariffs and agreed to a quota on exports of steel to U.S. to revise their free trade agreement. Japan has been put into an uncomfortable situation by the steel problems as their Prime Minister and Mr. Trump has close relations with each other, played golf a number of times, and the two have worked together so that North Korea disassembles its nuclear and missile programs. A more than $400 million could be used in possible avenging measures which is almost equal to the value of the U.S. tariffs based on the steel amount Japan has exported in previous years. Japan is willing to bring U.S. back to join in the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement including 11 countries and was signed in March, but Trump is out of this agreement. At the CEO Council meeting in Tokyo, Japan’s minister of economy, trade and industry Hiroshige Seko stated that we wanted U.S and Trump to join and lead multilateral framework yet we understand how President Trump is busy and focused on bilateral trade talks.

• [Editor:janita]