Trump raps US trade deficit with Japan as not fair

March 11, 2018

Washington- US President Donald Trump expressed his displeasure on Saturday with his country's huge trade deficit with Japan, calling it "not fair or sustainable."

On his Twitter account, Trump said he discussed bilateral trade in telephone talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday.

The United States currently runs a trade deficit of a "massive 100 billion dollars" with Japan, Trump said. But he expressed confidence that the trade imbalance will be rectified, saying, "It will all work out!"

The president made the remarks after signing orders on Thursday to impose import tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum, effective on March 23, citing national security concerns.

In another Twitter post, Trump said, "The European Union, wonderful countries who treat the US very badly on trade, are complaining about the tariffs" on steel and aluminum.

"If they drop their horrific barriers and tariffs on US products going in, we will likewise drop ours," he said. "If not, we tax cars, etc."

While prioritizing talks with the United States to win tariff exemptions for European products, the EU is also looking at retaliatory tariffs totaling 2.8 billion euros, raising worries that intensified trade friction between the United States and Europe might develop into a global trade war. Jiji Press