Donald Trump on Japan Agreement: “Who does such deals?”

U.S. President Donald Trump has also complained about the relationship with Japan after similar complaints about European allies. “We have a great relationship with Japan. But we have an interesting agreement with Japan that we have to protect it but don’t have to protect us,” said Trump on Thursday (local time).

The US President made his statements in the run-up to an apparently planned visit by the Japanese Minister of Commerce Yoji Muto in Washington, in which this media reports will make an effort for his country from the announced US tariffs on steel and aluminum.

In his statements, Trump also complained that the imbalance in relation to the United States consisted not only in defense policy, but also in trade relationships. “Incidentally, they earn a fortune with us economically,” said Trump to the relationship with Japan and added: “I really wonder who is doing such deals?”

Japanese government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi said after Trump’s statements that his country trusted that the United States complied with its obligations from the security agreement between the two countries. US soldiers have been stationed in Japan for decades, and their troops are currently around 54,000, they are mainly in the Okinawa region east of Taiwan.

According to Japanese media, Japan’s Minister of Commerce Muto is said to visit the United States from Sunday to next Thursday and there is an urging that his country will be excluded from the planned tariffs of the US government on steel and aluminum imports. According to Trump’s previous statements, these should come into force next Wednesday, so exceptions are not intended. Trump had also threatened punitive tariffs on car imports. These make up around a third of the export value of Japanese goods to the USA.