Will we see Ford F-150 in the streets of Tokyo? This is in any case what the agreement concluded by the Japanese government with the President of the United States to try to save its automotive industry.
“They take the magnificent Ford F-150, which works very well, I am sure that we will also succeed there,” Plutroned Donald Trump after the announcement of the agreement which brings the US tax on cars and other imports from Japan from 25 % to 15 %.
Japanese prefer small cars and the market trend is to Cars are in Carsmini-mining three times less than a F-150 and almost half less wide. F-150s that replace the kei trucks ? It remains to be seen.
No one yet knows what these agreements really contain by the President of the United States really contain with its main trade partners, including Japan, South Korea and the European Union (EU). He himself, moreover, does not seem to know of the details.
Thus, Donald Trump says that the Japanese agreed to invest 550 billion US in the United States, but that this money is a gift of the US government, which can do what it wants.
The secretary of commerce, Howard Lunick, added, specifying that Japan would put money in projects chosen by the president, at his discretion.
This is not what the Japanese understood, of course. “We will not cooperate with things that will not benefit Japanese companies or the Japanese economy,” defended Japan commercial negotiator, Ryosei Akazawa, quoted by the Japan Times.
PHOTO EVELYN HOCKSTEIN, ARCHIVES REUTERS
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, during her meeting with Donald Trump, on July 27
With the EU, the agreement is even more vague. Thus, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, is committed on behalf of the 27 member countries of the Union to buy for US 750 billion in American oil and natural gas over the next three years. This is all the energy that the United States will be able to export during this period. It will probably not happen.
Also, the EU is committed, like Japan, to invest 600 billion US in the United States before the end of Trump’s mandate in 2028. Not only can the Union do not force its member countries to invest in the United States, but the governments of these countries cannot dictate their private companies a line of investment.
Like Japan, it seems that the EU has not understood well how the promised US 600 billion will be invested. “It’s a gift,” said President Trump after the agreement. “It is not a loan. There is nothing to reimburse. There are no details. Details are $ 600 billion to invest in everything I want. »»
“The political agreement of July 27 is not legally restrictive,” said the EU in its official statement on the agreement concluded with the United States. In Japan, the opposition demands the legal document which would precisely detail the terms of the agreement with the United States.
There is nothing written, nothing legally forced and nothing either that binds the government of the United States, only the president who changes his idea often. And if he is not satisfied with the evolution of the commitments made by the countries which have accepted his conditions, he promises that higher customs duties will be imposed on them.
