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California Governor Gavin Newsom said Friday that he will seek agreements with the rest of the world to avoid the expected retaliations against US President Donald Trump’s tariffs.”California is not Washington, DC,” Newsom said in a video posted to social media.”Donald Trump’s tariffs do not represent all Americans, particularly those that I represent here in the fifth largest economy in the world, the state of California.” The majority of goods that enter the United States from China pass through Californian ports, and the state has considerable trade with Mexico and Canada. These three countries represent 40 percent of California’s imports and are also the countries the state exports to most.”The Golden State will remain a steady, reliable partner for generations to come, no matter the turbulence coming out of Washington,” Newsom added in a statement.He did not specify how new agreements could bypass Trump’s protectionist policies.Newsom, 57, faces term limits that bar him from running for re-election in 2026. His political ambitions remain unknown, but the Democrat is seen as a potential 2028 presidential candidate.In a trade offensive that is unprecedented since the 1930s, Trump unleashed broad spanning global tariffs this week, sending markets into a record-breaking slump and resulting in retaliatory tariffs.Trump’s latest levies mean Chinese products must be taxed at a total of 54 percent, and those from the European Union at 20 percent.On Friday, China retaliated by announcing additional tariffs of 34 percent on American products starting April 10, “in addition to the currently applicable tariff rates.” “We will not stand idly by during Trump’s tariff war,” Newsom said on X.As the most populous state in the country, with nearly 40 million inhabitants, California accounts for 14 percent of the American GDP and would be the fifth-largest economy in the world if it were a country, Newsom said.The cradle of tech, California is also a leading manufacturer and agricultural producer in the country.After fires ravaged Los Angeles in January, California faces concerns that tariffs will hinder the city’s reconstruction by making frequently imported construction materials like wood, steel, aluminum, and drywall more expensive.

US President Donald Trump on Friday extended the deadline for TikTok to find a non-Chinese buyer or face a ban in the United States, allowing 75 more days to find a solution.”My Administration has been working very hard on a deal to save TikTok, and we have made tremendous progress,” Trump said on Truth Social, just hours before the deadline was to expire.”A transaction requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed, which is why I am signing an Executive Order to keep TikTok up and running for an additional 75 days.”The hugely popular video-sharing app, which has more than 170 million American users, is under threat from a US law passed last year that orders TikTok to split from its Chinese owner ByteDance or get shut down in the United States.Trump has insisted his administration is near a deal to find a buyer for TikTok and keep it from shutting down that would involve multiple investors, but has given few details.ByteDance, while confirming that it was in talks with the US government towards finding a solution, warned that there remained “key matters” to solve.”An agreement has not been executed” and whatever was decided would be “subject to approval under Chinese law,” the company added.Motivated by national security fears and belief in Washington that TikTok is controlled by the Chinese government, the ban took effect on January 19, one day before Trump’s inauguration, with ByteDance having made no attempt to find a suitor.TikTok temporarily shut down in the United States and disappeared from app stores, to the dismay of millions of users.But the Republican president quickly announced an initial 75-day delay and TikTok was restored to users, returning to the Apple and Google app stores in February.The new 75-day delay pushes the deadline to June 19.Trump has repeatedly downplayed risks that TikTok is in danger, saying he remains confident of finding a buyer for the app’s US business.The president added on Friday that he would “continue working in good faith with China,” whose government will need to sign off on the transaction.The president suggested TikTok could even be part of a broader deal with China to ease the stinging tariffs he imposed on Beijing as part of a worldwide blitz of levies.”We do not want TikTok to ‘go dark.’ We look forward to working with TikTok and China to close the deal,” he added.According to reports, the solution in the works would see existing US investors in ByteDance roll over their stakes into a new independent global TikTok company.Additional US investors, including Oracle and Blackstone, the private equity firm, would be brought on to reduce ByteDance’s share in the new TikTok.Much of TikTok’s US activity is already housed on Oracle servers, and the company’s chairman, Larry Ellison, is a longtime Trump ally.ABC News reported on Friday that Walmart was also in the mix, spurred on by a late expression of interest by retail archrival Amazon to buy the app.Walmart and Oracle were previously rumored to be buying TikTok in the US when Trump tried to wrest the company from its Chinese owners during his first administration.Trump long supported a ban or divestment, but has lately defended TikTok, seeing it as a reason more young voters supported him in November’s election.- What about the algorithm? -Uncertainty remains, particularly over what would happen to TikTok’s valuable algorithm.”TikTok without its algorithm is like Harry Potter without his wand — it’s simply not as powerful,” said Forrester Principal Analyst Kelsey Chickering.Various media reports suggest the new company could license the algorithm from ByteDance, which would remain invested in TikTok.But such an arrangement would go against the spirit of the law, which is in part based on the premise that TikTok’s algorithm can be weaponized by the Chinese against US interests.

In unleashing global tariffs, President Donald Trump has vowed to remake the world to benefit US workers. One beneficiary could be the country he sees as the primary adversary — China.Asia’s largest economy promptly slapped identical tariffs on the United States and said it would impose export controls on rare earth elements vital in consumer and medical technology.But unlike during his first term, this time Trump is targeting not just China but the entire world — including American allies that had increasingly joined Washington’s firm line on Beijing.Just days before Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs announcement, China moved to revive stalled free-trade talks with Japan and South Korea, both treaty-bound US allies with deep-rooted skepticism about Beijing.”If Trump’s unilateralism continues, I expect Beijing to court these capitals more aggressively, positioning itself as the steadier economic anchor in the region,” said Lizzi Lee, a fellow on the Chinese economy at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis.”And let’s not forget the optics. China is very much framing Trump’s tariffs as proof of US decline — resorting to protectionism, bullying allies and retreating from global norms,” she said.Yun Sun, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center, said she had expected China to be “a little more chill” in response to Trump’s tariffs but said Beijing did not appear as worried as during his first term.”I think the Chinese see this more as opportunity and believe the US is actively undermining itself,” she said.”There are a number of aggrieved parties that had been solid and loyal allies of the US,” she added. “Now their confidence in the approach that the US is taking around the world is — I wouldn’t say shattered — but at least in doubt.”- Burying US opening to China -To be sure, China will likely feel real pain from the US tariffs. It shipped more than $500 billion in goods to the United States last year, with the trade balance far in China’s favor.Critics of China hailed what they saw as a death knell for a former near-consensus in Washington on the value of integrating the Asian power into the global economy.”The idea that Communist China could be a responsible member of an international trade regime — the World Trade Organization — which should be premised on equal and fair trade, is a joke,” said Representative Chris Smith, a Republican who for decades has railed against Bill Clinton’s 1994 delinking of China’s trading privileges from human rights.”Unlike previous presidents, President Trump fully understands the nature and scope of the problem — and the existential threat posed by China — and what needs to be done,” Smith said.Jacob Stokes, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, noted that China still has a slew of issues with other countries, from territorial disputes with Japan, India and Southeast Asia to concerns in Europe over China’s embrace of Russia in the Ukraine war.”China has been adept at undermining its own positions, especially with its neighbors, through assertiveness and even aggression,” Stokes said.- Attention shifts from China -But Stokes said that former president Joe Biden had been effective in forming coalitions with other countries to put pressure on China, on issues from access to fifth-generation internet networks to security.”To the extent that Beijing was feeling a little bit isolated at the end of the Biden administration, I think that a lot of that pressure has come off as the locus of disruption is now clearly Washington,” Stokes said.While both Trump and Biden policymakers have identified China as the top US rival, Lee, of the Asia Society Policy Institute, said Trump fundamentally saw President Xi Jinping “not as a villain, but as a peer — another strongman.””For Trump, economic war isn’t about economics or even the stock markets — it’s about the optics of domination and strength,” Lee said.”And that leaves just enough room for a pivot — if Xi offers the kind of win Trump can brand.”

It took just one 50-minute speech by US President Donald Trump to undermine global economic stability and raise the prospect of a recession, with China’s countermeasures only amplifying the risk of a debilitating tit-for-tat trade war.The Wednesday White House event, billed by Trump as “Liberation Day”, unveiled levies on dozens of countries including all major US trading partners.These included the imposition of 20 percent levies on the European Union, 24 percent on Japan and an additional 34 percent on goods from China — bringing the new added tariff rate there to 54 percent. – What have been the first effects? -Trump’s sparked staggering selloffs on global stock markets as investors pulled out of shares of companies which will be strongly impacted by the measures.The S&P 500 index, which regroups the 500 largest US companies, saw $2.5 trillion in value zapped on Thursday as it sank 4.8 percent in its worst daily loss since the Covid pandemic.It fell by another five percent in morning trading on Friday.Shares in certain auto manufacturers have taken a big hit as separate tariffs of 25 percent on car imports into the United States went into effect on Thursday.Stellantis, which owns the Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep brands, will pause production in certain of its Canadian and Mexican factories.Nissan went back on its plan to phase out production of its Rogue SUV in South Carolina, and will no longer sell two models of its luxury brand Infiniti that are made in Mexico.Volkswagen will pass on the cost of the tariffs to consumers by adding an “import fee” to cars it imports into the United States from Europe and Mexico.Shares in apparel firms also took big hits as they depend heavily on imported goods.- Will this provoke a recession? -“No one wins from a trade war, with the US economy set to be adversely impacted as much as, if not more, than Europe,” said analysts at Barclays bank.A spike in inflation from the tariffs and a drop in consumption by US consumers could choke off growth, in the United States and elsewhere.More and more economists and analysts are talking about the possibility of the US economy falling into recession.The OECD’s March forecasts already forecast a recession for Mexico this year and next. It also sharply lowered its outlook for the Canadian economy.IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva on Thursday said new US tariffs “clearly represent a significant risk to the global outlook”.The IMF had until now expected the global economy to expand by 3.3 percent this year and next.”It’s a major shock for the global economy,” said Antoine Bouet, head of the French economic think tank CEPII.He expects the tariffs could shave 0.8 percent off global economic output by 2040.- Will global trade contact? -The first signals are worrying, particularly in Asia, which has become the globe’s manufacturing centre. While China had dominated, the tariffs imposed by Trump during his first stint in the White House encouraged companies to move some manufacturing to countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia and Bangladesh.Economists at ratings agency Fitch said Trump’s “Liberation Day” measures take US tariffs back to levels last seen in 1909 and would likely sharply affect the economy.In a sign of fear of a sharp slowdown in trade, the price of transporting shipping containers from China to the United States has tanked since Thursday.The World Trade Organization said Thursday it estimated that the Trump tariffs would cut global trade by around one percent.But it said things could get worse if a tit-for-tat trade war began, and on Friday China announced retaliatory tariffs on US goods of 34 percent.- Is it the end of free trade? -The “Liberation Day” tariffs took the average US tariff rate from 4.99 percent to 27.17 percent, CEPII calculated.The measures are a fresh bump for the global economy that has faced shocks in recent years from the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.But former WTO chief Pascal Lamy sought to put the situation into context.”Thirteen percent of global imports are affected by Trump’s follies,” he told AFP.”There’s no reason the other 87 percent become contaminated.” He said that he expects if the US economy closes up other countries would open theirs.Numerous nations have sought recently to breathe new life into trade deal talks in the hopes of compensating for lost business in the United States.Japan, South Korea and China called Sunday for their negotiations for a comprehensive trilateral free-trade agreement to be speeded up, and agreed to create “a predictable trade and investment environment”. 

President Donald Trump goaded China on Friday after the US’s chief economic rival retaliated against his tariffs, and he dismissed falling stock markets over the growing global trade war, touting it as a chance to “get rich.””China played it wrong, they panicked — the one thing they cannot afford to do!” Trump posted on Truth Social, writing the message in his trademark all-caps.For a second day, markets plunged, wiping vast sums off investment and retirement portfolios alike. US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned the tariffs were likely to spur “higher inflation and lower growth.”Wall Street saw prolonged selloffs, both the Dow Jones and S&P 500 losing close to four percent. Frankfurt and London sank more than four percent, while Tokyo’s Nikkei closed 2.8 percent down.Trump, who unveiled his barrage of import duties against dozens of countries Wednesday, was unrepentant, posting that “my policies will never change.””This is a great time to get rich,” he wrote.The 78-year-old Republican, who was spending a long weekend golfing at his course in Palm Beach, Florida, is banking on the theory that the might of the world’s biggest economy will force foreign companies to manufacture on US soil, rather than continue to import goods.However, China responded by announcing its own new 34 percent tariffs on US imports starting April 10.Beijing said it would sue the United States at the World Trade Organization and also restrict export of rare earth elements used in high-end medical and electronics technology.Other big US trading partners have held back as they digest the unfolding international standoff and fears of recession.EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic said the EU, which Trump hit with a 20 percent tariff, will act in “a calm, carefully phased, unified way” and allow time for talks.However, he also warned the bloc “won’t stand idly by, should we be unable to reach a fair deal.”- EU examines options -France and Germany have said the 27-nation EU could respond by imposing a tax on US tech companies.Economy Minister Eric Lombard urged French companies to show “patriotism” after President Emmanuel Macron argued it would send the wrong message if they pressed ahead with investments in the United States.Lombard said the EU’s retaliation would not necessarily involve tit-for-tat tariffs and could use other tools, pointing to data exchange and taxes instead.In Tokyo, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba called for a “calm-headed” approach after Trump slapped 24 percent tariffs on Japanese-made goods.Trump said he’d had a “very productive” call with Vietnam’s top leader after the southeast Asian manufacturing hub was hit with extraordinary 46 percent US duties.- Cars clash -Separate US tariffs of 25 percent on all foreign-made cars went into effect this week, and Canada swiftly responded with a similar levy on US imports.Stellantis — the owner of Jeep, Chrysler and Fiat — paused production at some Canadian and Mexican assembly plants.Japanese carmaker Nissan said on Friday it would revise plans to reduce production in the United States.The company also said it would stop selling two vehicle models on the US market that are made in Mexico.Sweden’s Volvo Cars, owned by China’s Geely, said it would increase its production of vehicles in the United States and probably produce an additional model there.- Economy fears -Powell’s comments Friday reflected growing concern that the trade war shockwaves will extend deep into the US economy.”It is now becoming clear that the tariff increases will be significantly larger than expected,” Powell said in a speech. “The same is likely to be true of the economic effects.”Minutes before Powell suggested the Fed will continue to hold off from cutting its benchmark lending rate, Trump pressured him to do so.”CUT INTEREST RATES, JEROME, AND STOP PLAYING POLITICS!” he posted — once again defying the longstanding custom in which the White House respects the central bank’s independence.In a more concrete sign of how tariffs are impacting trade, Nintendo announced it was delaying preorders of its hotly anticipated Switch 2 gaming console while it assesses “evolving” conditions.burs-sms/bgs

President Donald Trump goaded a “panicked” China on Friday after the chief US economic rival retaliated against his tariffs and he dismissed stock market panic over the growing global trade war, touting the chance to “get rich.””China played it wrong, they panicked — the one thing they cannot afford to do!” Trump posted on Truth Social, writing the message in his trademark all-caps.For a second day, markets plunged, wiping vast sums off investment and retirement portfolios alike.Wall Street opened with steep selloffs, both the Dow Jones and S&P 500 losing close to three percent. Frankfurt and London sank more than four percent, while Tokyo’s Nikkei closed 2.8 percent down.Trump, who unveiled his barrage of import duties against countries all over the world on Wednesday, was unrepentant, posting that “my policies will never change.””This is a great time to get rich, richer than ever before,” he wrote.The 78-year-old Republican, who was spending a long weekend golfing at his course in Palm Beach, Florida, is banking on the theory that the sheer might of the world’s biggest economy will force foreign companies to manufacture on US soil, rather than continue to import goods.However, China responded toughly, announcing its own new 34 percent tariffs on US imports starting April 10.Beijing said it would sue the United States at the World Trade Organization and also restrict export of rare earth elements used in high-end medical and electronics technology.Other big US trading partners have so far held back as they digest the unfolding international standoff and fears of recession.EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic was due to speak with US counterparts on Friday.Sefcovic said the EU, which Trump hit with a 20 percent tariff, will act in “a calm, carefully phased, unified way” and allow time for talks. However, he also warned the bloc “won’t stand idly by, should we be unable to reach a fair deal”.- EU examines options -France and Germany have said the 27-nation EU could respond by imposing a tax on US tech companies.Economy Minister Eric Lombard urged French companies to show “patriotism” after President Emmanuel Macron argued it would send the wrong message if they pressed ahead with investments in the United States.Lombard said the EU’s retaliation would not necessarily involve tit-for-tat tariffs and could use other tools, pointing to data exchange and tax as levers that could be used.”The response can be very strongб but we should not respond with exactly the same weapons the US used as, if we do, it can also have a negative effect in Europe,” he told news network BFMTV.In Tokyo, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba called for a “calm-headed” approach after Trump slapped 24 percent tariffs on Japanese-made goods.- Cars clash -Separate US tariffs of 25 percent on all foreign-made cars also went into effect this week, and Canada swiftly responded with a similar levy on US imports.Stellantis — the owner of Jeep, Chrysler and Fiat — paused production at some Canadian and Mexican assembly plants.Japanese carmaker Nissan said on Friday it would revise plans to reduce production in the United States.The company also said it would stop selling two vehicle models on the US market that are made at a factory in Mexico.Sweden’s Volvo Cars, owned by China’s Geely, said it would increase its production of vehicles in the United States and probably produce an additional model there.Amid howls of protest abroad, and even from some of Trump’s Republicans who fear price rises at home, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick urged patience.”Let Donald Trump run the global economy. He knows what he’s doing,” Lutnick said on CNN.burs-sms/md

Equities and oil prices extended a global rout for markets Friday after China hit back over President Donald Trump’s tariff blitz with its own mammoth levy on US goods, inflaming global trade war fears.The dollar was steadier against main rivals having fallen sharply Thursday on fears of a recession in the United States.”Sentiment is so fragile right now,” Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at online trading platform IG, told AFP.”Investors are firmly in the ‘get me to cash now’ phase, on fears that other nations will follow China’s lead, and of course that the US president will respond to China’s tariffs with even more charges. “This trade war is like nothing we’ve seen for years, perhaps decades,” Beauchamp added.Frankfurt’s main DAX index of German blue-chip companies plunged more than five percent moments after the Chinese government said it would slap 34 percent tariffs on all imports of US goods from April 10.Paris tumbled 4.2 percent and London gave up 3.9 percent in early afternoon deals.Oil futures plummeted around seven percent, having already plunged some 6.5 percent Thursday on the prospect of weaker demand.News that OPEC+ had unexpectedly hiked crude supply more than planned added to the steep selling.The price of traded copper — a vital component for energy storage, electric vehicles, solar panels and wind turbines — tumbled more than five percent.Beijing on Friday also imposed exports controls on seven rare earth elements, its commerce ministry said, including gadolinium — commonly used in MRIs — and yttrium, utilised in consumer electronics.”Another jolt of fear has shot through markets as China’s threat of retaliation has materialised,” said Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown. “The big concern is that this is a sign of a sharp escalation of the tariff war which will have major implications for the global economy.”China’s response came after Trump’s harsher-than-expected “Liberation Day” levies sent shockwaves through markets Thursday, with Wall Street suffering its worst day since the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.French President Emmanuel Macron has called for suspending investment in the United States until what he called the “brutal” new tariffs had been “clarified”.Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said the 24 percent levies his country faced were a “national crisis”.The Tokyo stock market closed with a loss of 2.8 percent, as car giants took the heat once more. Toyota slid more than four percent while Nissan and Honda each sank more than five percent. Hanoi’s index, which plunged more than seven percent Thursday owing to the near 50 percent US tariff imposed on Vietnam, fell another 4.6 percent.The selling came after Wall Street’s tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite plunged six percent Thursday, the S&P 500 shed 4.8 percent — its biggest dip in a day since 2020 — and the Dow retreated four percent.Investors will be keeping a close eye on US jobs data due Friday for a fresh insight into the state of the world’s top economy, while Federal Reserve boss Jerome Powell is also lined up to give a speech.- Key figures around 1200 GMT -West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 7.2 percent at $62.10 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 6.8 percent at $65.38 per barrelFrankfurt – DAX: DOWN 5.1 percent at 20,619.18 points Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 4.2 percent at 7,284.75London – FTSE 100: DOWN 3.9 percent at 8,142.42 Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 2.8 percent at 33,780.58 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: Closed for a holidayShanghai – Composite: Closed for a holidayNew York – Dow: DOWN 4.0 percent at 40,545.93 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1050 from $1.1052 on ThursdayPound/dollar: UP at $1.3017 from $1.2968Dollar/yen: DOWN at 145.22 yen from 145.99 yenEuro/pound: UP at 84.82 pence from 84.34 penceburs-bcp/ajb/lth

Markets extended a global selloff Friday as countries around the world reeled from US President Donald Trump’s trade war, but the White House insisted the American economy will emerge victorious.Shock waves tore through markets in the United States, Europe and Asia after Trump’s tariff bombshell, as foreign leaders signaled readiness to negotiate but also threatened counter-tariffs.The S&P 500 dropped 4.8 percent in its biggest loss since 2020 on Thursday. The tech-rich Nasdaq plummeted 6.0 percent and the Dow Jones 4.0 percent.Japan’s key Nikkei 225 index was down more than three percent in afternoon trade Friday, with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba describing Trump’s tariffs as a “national crisis”.Trump slapped 10 percent import duties on all nations and far higher levies on imports from dozens of specific countries — including top trade partners China and the European Union.Separate tariffs of 25 percent on all foreign-made cars also went into effect, and Canada swiftly responded with a similar levy on US imports.Stellantis — the owner of Jeep, Chrysler and Fiat — paused production at some Canadian and Mexican assembly plants.Trump dismissed the turmoil, insisting to reporters as he left for a weekend at his Florida golf resort that stocks will “boom.”Vice President JD Vance, in an interview with Newsmax, also played down the market turbulence.”I frankly thought in some ways it could be worse in the markets, because this is a big transition,” Vance said.- ‘Trust Donald Trump’ -Trump says he wants to make the United States free from reliance on foreign manufacturers, in a massive economic reshaping that he likened to a medical procedure.”It’s what is expected,” the 78-year-old president said of the market reaction. “The patient was very sick. The economy had a lot of problems.””It went through an operation. It’s going to be a booming economy. It’s going to be amazing.”Amid howls of protest abroad and from even some of Trump’s Republicans, who fear price rises at home, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick urged patience.”Let Donald Trump run the global economy. He knows what he’s doing,” Lutnick said on CNNTrump reserved some of the heaviest blows for what he called “nations that treat us badly.” That included an additional 34 percent on goods from China — bringing the new added tariff rate there to 54 percent.The figure for the European Union was 20 percent, and 24 percent on Japan.China demanded the tariffs be immediately canceled and vowed countermeasures, while France and Germany warned that the EU could hit back at US tech firms.French President Emmanuel Macron called for suspending investment in the United States until what he called the “brutal” new tariffs had been “clarified.”IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said the tariffs “clearly represent a significant risk to the global outlook.”She appealed to Washington and its trade partners to work “constructively” to resolve tensions and reduce uncertainty.Gold — a safe-haven investment — hit a new record price, oil fell and the dollar slumped against other major currencies.- Global economic ‘sumo wrestler’ -Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, head of the World Trade Organization, which helps manage global trading, warned the upheaval may lead to contraction of “one percent in global merchandise trade volumes this year.”Republican Senator Mitch McConnell broke ranks with Trump, slamming tariffs as “bad policy.”Preserving long-term prosperity “requires working with our allies, not against them,” McConnell said.Trump has said he would negotiate “as long as they are giving something that is good.”The 27-nation EU and other countries have sought to negotiate as they refrained from immediate retaliation.Beijing said it was “maintaining communication” with Washington over trade issues, and EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic planned to speak with US counterparts on Friday.But White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told CNN earlier that the president made it clear “this is not a negotiation.”And Lutnick also struck a hard line, saying, “You can’t really fight with the United States.””You’re going to lose. We are the sumo wrestler of this world.”burs-cl/st/cms/dhc/lth

US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Japanese goods are a “national crisis”, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Friday ahead of cross-party talks on mitigating the impact on the heavily export-dependent economy.Japanese firms are the biggest investors into the United States but Trump on Thursday announced a hefty 24 percent levy on imports from the close US ally as part of global “reciprocal” levies.The measures “can be called a national crisis and the government is doing its best with all parties” to lessen the impact, Ishiba said in parliament.He called however for a “calm-headed” approach to negotiations with Trump, who has also imposed 25 percent tariffs on auto imports which came into force this week.Local media reported Friday that Japanese officials were attempting to organise a call between Ishiba and Trump, who held apparently friendly talks at the White House in February.Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya “strongly demanded” to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in talks in Brussels on Thursday that the “extremely regrettable” measures be reviewed, Tokyo said.Japan’s main Nikkei 225 index fell 2.75 percent on Friday, adding to a 2.7 percent drop on Thursday after the S&P 500 on Wall Street dropped by the most in a day since 2020.Ishiba told ministers “to take all measures necessary including financing support” for domestic industries and protecting jobs, government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters.Ishiba’s meetings with party leaders later Friday were aimed at laying the groundwork for the supplementary budget, the Asahi Shimbun daily reported.- ‘Extremely grave’ -The Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) said Trump’s tariffs “would have an extremely grave impact on the Japanese economy”.”We strongly urge the government to continue its persistent negotiations for the exemption from tariff measures and to take all possible measures to minimise the impact on small and medium-sized enterprises and small businesses… by developing a detailed consultation system and strengthening cash management support,” the JCCI said Thursday.The Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA) also called for “comprehensive support measures to ensure that Japan’s automotive industry can maintain its foundation as a manufacturing base”.JAMA said its members have invested a cumulative total of more than $66 billion in US manufacturing as of 2024, generating over 110,000 direct US jobs and supporting more than 2.2 million others.Japanese carmakers ship about 1.45 million cars to the United States from Canada and Mexico, where they operate factories, Bloomberg News reported.By comparison, Japan exports 1.49 million cars directly to the United States, while Japanese automakers make 3.3 million cars in America.- ‘Incomprehensible’ -The US deficit with Japan was almost $70 billion last year. Japan mostly exports to the United States vehicles, auto parts, machinery, and electrical and electronic equipment.US imports the other way are mostly chemicals, plastics, rubber, and leather goods, as well as agriculture products and oil and cement.The White House has said that Japan has a 700 percent tariff on US rice imports, a claim Japan’s farm minister called “incomprehensible”, local media reported.In Japan, the auto sector employs about 5.6 million people directly or indirectly.Vehicles accounted for around 28 percent of Japan’s 21.3 trillion yen ($142 billion) of US-bound exports last year.BMI (Fitch Solutions) estimated that in a worst-case scenario, there could be a hit of 0.7 percentage points to Japan’s economy this year.Capital Economics was less pessimistic, predicting a “quite small” impact of perhaps just 0.2 percent, saying that “Japan isn’t all that dependent on US demand”.