Washington/Kyoto (Reuters) – US President Donald Trump announced Customs duties of 15% on Tuesday would be deducted from products from Japan as part of a business agreement concluded between Washington and Tokyo.

Donald Trump said the agreement would lead Tokyo to invest $ 550 billion (468 billion euros) in the United States.

The agreement should in particular reduce the tensions weighing on the Japanese automotive industry, which sees the customs duties imposed on it drop from 25% to 15%.

In a message published on his Truth Social network, Donald Trump welcomed the “most important commercial agreement (never concluded) with Japan”.

“This is a great moment for the United States, especially since we will continue to always have an extraordinary relationship with Japan,” he said.

The announcement sparked a rally on the Japanese markets, the Nikkei progressing by 2.6%. The car manufacturers have leaping, Toyota earning more than 11% and Honda and Nissan more than 8% each.

American car manufacturers have, however, expressed their dissatisfaction with the announcement of the agreement, expressing their concerns about a commercial scheme which could reduce customs duties on automobile imports from Japan while maintaining 25% those imposed on imports from Canada and Mexico.

The chief negotiator of Japan for customs duties Ryosei Akazawa, who met Donald Trump on Tuesday on the White House, said on social network X that the agreement did not focus on Japanese steel and aluminum exports – subject to 50%customs duties.

(Trevor Hunnicutt, Jasper Ward and Mariko Katsumura, with Makiko Yamazaki, Andrea Shalal, David Shepardson and Vidya Ranganathan, written by James Oliphant and John Geddie; Camille Raynaud)

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