TOKYO: Japan's trade minister on Thursday pushed back against Washington for considering possible tariffs on automobile imports, a major driver of the Japanese economy. The US investigation could provide the legal basis to impose tariffs, if it finds imports threaten US national security. The Trump administration used the same justification to impose steep tariffs on steel and aluminium, raising the spectre of a trade war. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has worked hard to befriend Trump, but Japan was not exempted from the steel and aluminium tariffs. This prompted Tokyo to inform the WTO last week it had the right to impose tariffs worth 50 billion yen on US goods -- equivalent to the impact of the US tariffs on Japanese steel and aluminium products.

Source: Bangkok Post May 24, 2018 04:30 UTC