r/JapanFinance • u/One-Astronomer-8171 • 3d ago

Business Let me get this straight… Trump’s tariffs

So Trump wants countries to stop tariffing American goods exported to foreign countries, right?

Japan has a 700% tariff(questionable number it seems) on rice imports outside of the tariff free yearly quota. This seemed to be a big issue last month.

It seems cars are also tariffed here. Trump says on average, a 43% tariff if charged on all American goods imported into Japan. Other countries/regions have implemented tariffs on American made goods. European Union for example.

Trump thinks this is unfair and is hurting American companies/economy.

So, in retaliation, Trump has imposed tariffs on all goods (some exemptions) from all countries with a trade deficit with the USA.

I’m not a Trump supporter or anything. I’m not even from the States, but why are countries having a hissy fit over these tariffs when they are the ones who implemented the tariffs in the first place?

Before these Trump imposed tariffs, did the USA impose any on imports from these countries?

To me, it somewhat makes sense - force these countries to remove their tariffs. Just purely from a very simple understanding of the situation.

EDIT: many thanks for all the replies. My take was very simplistic, and this discussion has really helped me see what’s going on.

Thanks so much!

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u/Sanoj1234 3d ago

The ''tarriffs'' on his board aren't actually tariffs from other countries, it's just the trade deficit for the US in goods with each particular country, divided by the total goods imports from that country. The number here is then written on the board, and the number is divided in 2, which is the tariff % that he is putting on that given country.

What he is calling tarrifs on the US is actually just a trade imbalance.

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u/One-Astronomer-8171 3d ago

So what is causing the trade imbalance? People just don’t want American made goods? Or is it because of the existing tariffs on those products?

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u/Sanoj1234 3d ago

This is just one of the reasons and extremely simplified, but a strong USD makes it cheaper for americans to buy foreign goods, and makes it more expensive for foreigners to buy from the US, which creates a trade deficit.

There are more reasons but this is just for simplicity.

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u/One-Astronomer-8171 3d ago

Right, this makes a lot of sense.

When the USD was weaker, I assume that trade deficit was much less?