Japan stood its ground and vowed to continue holding the line following the shock announcement that U.S. President Donald Trump will impose a 25% tariff on Japanese goods from Aug. 1.
“If you're asking whether I feel any sense of relief, the answer is absolutely not,” Ryosei Akazawa, Japan’s chief tariff negotiator, said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon. “We are negotiating with President Trump, a head of state and an extremely tough leader. There’s no way this will proceed smoothly."
Akazawa, who spoke with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick over the phone for about 40 minutes on Tuesday, said Japan will continue to seek an agreement that is acceptable to both countries. He did not repeat the government's previous demand that the U.S. eliminate all tariffs in place as a precondition for an agreement.
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