BUSINESS
Japan’s Abe in talks as a way to avert car tariffs
September 26, 2018 - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Trump will hold a trade summit on Wednesday as fears grow that Washington could slap tariffs on Japan’s car exports to the United States.
Japanese carmakers stand to lose half their profits if Trump goes through with his threatened 25% tariff. Japan exported1.7 million cars to the United States worth some $39.8 billion in 2017.
Since Honda opened its first U.S. plant in 1982, almost every major European, Japanese, and Korean automaker has produced vehicles and invested more than $75 billion in research and development, design, and testing in the U.S.
Last year EU-owned automobile manufacturers made close to 2.9 million passenger cars in the U.S., providing jobs for almost 120,000 Americans.
The threat of the world’s three largest economies -- the U.S., China and Japan -- being dragged into a trade conflict would severely derail the global economy.