Japan seeks exemption from U.S. steel, aluminum tariffs

Wasn’t the broad tariff action necessary to counteract so-called transshipments of steel and aluminum — countries like Japan importing raw metals from nations such as China, then processing it and shipping it to the U.S. as an export of their own, thereby avoiding tariffs on China.

What’s going to stop these transshipments if Japan is granted an exemption?

If President Trump sees fit to inflict 25 percent tariffs on Japan steel, aluminium, a loyal trusted ally, whose Prime Minster is prepared to be at his beckoned call, shame on him

and in 24h, he will call this off for 90 days, no?

How can anyone trust anything this man says?

If President Trump sees fit to inflict 25 percent tariffs on Japan steel, aluminium

Is it Japan’s steel or China’s transshipped steel?

itsonlyrocknroll

If President Trump sees fit to inflict 25 percent tariffs on Japan steel, aluminium, a loyal trusted ally, whose Prime Minster is prepared to be at his beckoned call, shame on him

You constantly rail against China. Yet, here you encourage a tariff loophole for Chinese steel.

What gives?

Australia was granted its exemption by not criticising Trump’s sanctions against the ICC. Presumably Japan is hoping to do the same. What a way to run a world

“Lobbying the United States for an exemption?” Why not talk about imposing retaliatory counter tariffs on imports from the US and hit where Trump hurts most. That’s what normal countries do.

Back in line. The list of nations freaking out over this is already lengthy.

Lol

your pm’s visit didn’t do squat.

Asiaman7Today  04:41 pm JST

Wasn’t the broad tariff action necessary to counteract so-called transshipments of steel and aluminum — countries like Japan importing raw metals from nations such as China, then processing it and shipping it to the U.S. as an export of their own, thereby avoiding tariffs on China.

The steel that Japan exports to the U.S. is very high grade specialty steels as they have the advanced processing capability. Most of that steel is domestic Japanese, with a small portion of both raw and semi-finished steel imported from China. Japan protects it own steel industry from Chinese competition. As an exporter of steel to the U,S. Japan is not high on the list.

Canada - Number one supplier with exports valued at $8.36 billion.

Mexico - contributing $7.41 billion in iron and steel exports to the U.S.

Brazil- exports to the U.S. worth $4.56 billion.

4 India- $2.76 billion

5 South Korea - $1.9 billion

6 Japan - $1.28 billion of high grade specialty steels

7 Germany- $1.22 billion

9 China- $757.1 million (with articles made of iron/steel at $13.2 billion)

10 7 Turkey - $736 million

These top 10 countries account for 77% of the U.S.'s iron and steel imports.

Asiaman7,

You would not ask my opinion, if you did not already know the answer.

Come on please.

You don't need me, of all people to spell out the government of China undermined the global rules based trading system, a clear infringement of trade practices by the World Trade Organization.

Japan, its people are not trade “predatory”.

99.9% A loyal US ally,

I will contend there some "ducking and diving" , send some slack.

Respectfully, I will not blow smoke up President Trump backside, 25% tariffs is an outrageous kick in the goolies. Nothing less.

If Australia gets the exemption it wants on steel and aluminum, both worth less than 1 Billion USD a year, it may be because the US has had a large trade surplus with Australia for decades.

Japan, Canada and others have trade surpluses with America.

Tariffs on All nations by the US simply drives nations do redirect trade away from the US and rely more on each other, in the end reducing US trade with all nations, and less income from its own already limited manufacturing exports, damaging its agricultural sector and potentially damaging services exports as well.

The US will make itself a poison chalice limiting itself on the world stage and gifting supremacy to others only too eager to take the mantle of world leader. The question now is who is the leader of the free world? It certainly is no longer America, and the world wont follow Russia or China as they are also dictatorships and not free.

So who will the world look to for leadership? Or is anarchy the future for us all?

@OssanAmerica + @itsonlyrocknroll

You both still don’t seem to get the full picture.

Yes, Japan is a great friend to the U.S. and was thus granted duty-free quotas under the Biden administration.

However, Trump imposed this tariff on Japan, in addition to Canada, Mexico, and South Korea, to close the transshipment loophole that China has been exploiting.

""Japan on Wednesday requested that its steel and aluminum products be exempt from 25 percent tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump, who vowed to put the penalties into effect next month, the government's top spokesman said.""

Aha Finally, this is probably why Nippon Steel wanted o buy U.S. Steel one would think, cheap Steel and Alumi. out of Japan and China and Korea is probably what caused U.S. Steel to struggle over the years.

@Aslaman7...

""What’s going to stop these transshipments if Japan is granted an exemption?""

Steel is NOT the only product being processed that way, sever industries in Japan are doing it where they repackage then Label as Made In Japan then sell it to Europe, Canada, USA and the rest of the world.

Many Electrical and Electronics are being processed with several Chinees components then sold as a Japanese product.

Instead of being the loyal concubine in the region, why not have some dignity and impose back sanctions against US..

Please Japan, and rest of the world, have some dignity against this megalomaniac clown!!..

Asiaman7,

China's trade practices come under fire... from 2021

In 2024 the abuses continues unabated

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58991339

The government of Japan is willing to come to the table and negotiate.

Trump is the best incentive for the rest of the world to wean itself off the US!

itsonlyrocknroll

Asiaman7, 

China's trade practices come under fire... from 2021 

In 2024 the abuses continues unabated

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58991339

The government of Japan is willing to come to the table and negotiate.

You seem confused, unaware of how to appropriately respond — similar to what I occasionally see from Chat GPT.

WoodyLee

@Aslaman7...

""What’s going to stop these transshipments if Japan is granted an exemption?""

Steel is NOT the only product being processed that way, sever industries in Japan are doing it where they repackage then Label as Made In Japan then sell it to Europe, Canada, USA and the rest of the world. 

Many Electrical and Electronics are being processed with several Chinees components then sold as a Japanese product.

Excellent point, Woody! — probably the most astute comment so far on this thread.

No man ..that is not True !..Australia did not get an exemption ,The President said he'll consider it .....thats not a Yes or No ,.but its my guess they'll get a No because they ( Australian Labor Gov ) are insultive and have broken a promise with USA ... serves them right . "Village idiot " Aust Ambassador Rudd in USA has insulted DJT on more than one occassion... although it will hurt Australia , it might be whats needed to lose this corrupt Australian government that the people despise. Thats business ! desu yo !

grcToday  05:41 pm JST

"Australia was granted its exemption by not criticising Trump’s sanctions against the ICC. Presumably Japan is hoping to do the same. What a way to run a world"

Top 10 Importers of U.S.-Made Steel:

Canada: Approximately 19% of U.S. steel exports.

Brazil: Around 18%.

Mexico: About 13%.

South Korea: Approximately 9%.

Japan: Around 4%.

4%!

Japan is the no. 1 importer of Chinese steel (41%)

Meanwhile China is the no. 1 importer. of Japanese steel.

Trump can wave is pen all he wants. Asia yawns.

It not gonna end well for people that grovelling to Trump, people that grovelling will be at the mercy of those that oppose Trump, American are lawyering up to take back their legal rights with the assistance of Judges,that will put a end to Trump lawlessness

Why Trump is legally doomed,a judge in Washington DC,that know Trump crazy criminals practices has ruled against him and knows his history of criminality Google Judge Amy Jackson Trump Lawsuit

It will all play out, and everyone, including the US, will be paying a lot more for everything. It was going that way anyway, but this will speed up the process.

obladiToday  08:56 pm JST

Top 10 Importers of U.S.-Made Steel:

Canada: Approximately 19% of U.S. steel exports.

Brazil: Around 18%.

Mexico: About 13%.

South Korea: Approximately 9%.

Japan: Around 4%.

4%!

Japan is the no. 1 importer of Chinese steel (41%)

Where do you get this incorrect information that Japan is the top importer of Chinese steel?

As of 2022, the top five importers of Chinese steel were:

Vietnam 62% of all steel imports

South Korea 59.7%

India 22.8%

Thailand 43%

Japan 17.1%

Indonesia 7.8%

Trumps Tariffs on steel.

China is the winner here. We can consume the steel ourselves but all these other countries have no use for that much steel and rely on exporting steel.

What a bunch of crybabies. Once again begging to be exempt and to be an exception. What are they giving in return because bending over?

Japan has joined a queue of countries asking for an exemption. The question is : what does the USA regard as a "Special Case".

Last time around Japan didn't even manage to get the implementation postponed, as basically everybody else did. Ok, not China. Despite "Abi" being the great friend that he was... the EU, South Korea and countless others got more time, Japan got the tariffs immediately.

So it doesn't matter how nice Ishiba and Japan is to Trump. The only way to get an exemption is: Trump finally realizes it's not the 80es anymore. Japan isn't taking over anything. Japan is no danger anymore. He clearly hadn't paid attention in that briefing in his first term... doubt he will now. He's too busy doing really important stuff like changing names of mountains and gulfs.

Of course, there will be no tariffs, Nissan investing billions of dollars in investment eliminates the tariffs.

trumps answer. Pay ME 1 BILLION u s $'s and we have a deal.

US securing its supply chains

Will there be additional tariffs for China? If none then this tariff to all the others could greatly benefit China.

At sane tariff levels for all exporters to the US, US importers could buy directly from china at a lower price

Shipments to the US from Japan of aluminum are negligible.

Roughly 4% of the steel imported by the US is sourced from Japan. One could argue that much of that steel is used in Japanese auto plants located in the US, providing jobs and cars for Americans. Raising the cost of steel is probably going to cause the layoff of American workers and reduce the number of cars sold. Just today the CEO of Ford said that Trump's plans for the economy will have the opposite effect of what he is claiming.

Whatever happens, neither Japan nor China are big suppliers of steel to the US.

One wonders, is Trump really this dumb, or is he perhaps intentionally trying to destroy America and the world economy?

Whatever happens, neither Japan nor China are big suppliers of steel to the US.

You're saying even if Japan is granted tariff exemptions it will not have a significant effect on Japan s exports to the US?

Japan produced about 87 million tons of steel in 2023, and about 2 or 3 percent of that was exported to the US. In the scheme of things, neither country is a big supplier of steel to the other, nor a big consumer of steel from the other.

Since the US does not have the capacity to replace the steel it imports, tariffs will hurt all countries concerned, in more than one way. Prices in the US will go up, hurting inflation. The amount of manufactured goods in the US will go down, due to the lack of raw materials. Tariffing all steel imports to the US, which make up about 25% of steel used, without having anyway to replace that steel from US sources, is likely to hurt the US more than Japan.

1glenn

Today 10:19 am JST

Japan produced about 87 million tons of steel in 2023, and about 2 or 3 percent of that was exported to the US. In the scheme of things, neither country is a big supplier of steel to the other, nor a big consumer of steel from the other.

Yes, and Japan wants to supply more

One way is locally, by trying to acquire US company, or investing

Now if Japan gets exemption it will have a competitive advantage in exports

Yes it will hurt the US if they can't source locally and doesn't give exemption to any exporter

Only countries not running trade surpluses will qualify for 'carve-outs' on these tariffs, for example Australia, which runs a persistent trade deficit with the US.

Japan will pay up, expect Nippon Steel to pursue a JV with US Steel in order to produce within US and thus avoid tariffs and also qualify for a corp. 15% tax rate and far lower energy costs to produce the steel itself.