U.S., Japan strike trade deal

[Anchor]

The United States and Japan have reached a trade agreement.

In exchange for increasing imports of U.S. rice and committing to major investments, Japan will see its reciprocal tariff rates and auto tariffs reduced to 15%.

KBS correspondent Kim Ji-sook has the details from Washington.

[Report]

The U.S. has lowered the reciprocal tariff rate on Japanese products—previously set unilaterally at 25%—to 15%.

Among countries running a trade surplus with the U.S., Japan has secured the lowest reciprocal tariff rate under this deal.

Tariffs on automobiles, which the U.S. had uniformly set at 25% for all foreign products, have also been reduced to 15% for Japanese vehicles.

In return, Japan made significant concessions.

Japan agreed to implement $550 billion worth of investments in the U.S., equivalent to about 759 trillion Korean won.

President Trump stated that 90% of the profits from this investment would benefit the United States.

Japan also pledged to increase imports of certain agricultural products—including U.S. rice, a key sticking point in the talks—as well as automobiles.

Additionally, Japan committed to a joint venture to develop Alaska's LNG, a project President Trump has shown strong interest in.

[Donald Trump/President of the United States: "It's a great deal for everybody. I always say it has to be great for everybody. It's a great deal, a lot different from the deals in the past."]

However, the issue of increasing Japan’s defense budget was not included in this agreement.

The U.S. has also reached a similar deal with the Philippines.

In this case, the U.S. will lower the reciprocal tariff rate to 19%, while the Philippines will open its market to American goods and expand imports of U.S. agricultural and pharmaceutical products.

This is Kim Ji-sook reporting for KBS News from Washington.