The agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom on tariffs means little for Japan's ongoing efforts to get its own trade deal, with analysts and officials pointing out that some countries have much more work to do than others when it comes to meeting the demands of the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.
“First of all, the U.K. is a trade deficit country with respect to the United States, so their positions are completely different,” said Takahide Kiuchi, chief economist at Nomura Research Institute. “In other words, the threshold for an agreement was quite low from the start.”
Trump announced the agreement with the U.K. in the Oval Office on Thursday. It was the first deal made since the U.S. entered negotiations with dozens of countries on tariffs already imposed and on higher rates set to come into effect in July.
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