The US and Japan on Monday announced a deal to scrap Trump-era tariffs from about 1.25 million metric tonnes of Japanese steel imports annually after Washington granted similar access for steelmakers in the European Union last year.
The new deal, which excludes aluminium, will take effect on April 1 and requires Tokyo to fight global excess steel manufacturing capacity, largely created in China, US officials said.
A joint US-Japan statement said Japan would start to implement within six months “appropriate domestic measures, such as anti-dumping, countervailing duty, and safeguard measures or other measures of at least equivalent effect,” to establish more market-oriented conditions for steel.
The agreement, like the EU steel and aluminium deal reached in October, calls for steel imported from Japan to be completely produced in the country for duty-free access, a standard known as “melted and poured,” to reduce the risk of Chinese steel skirting US tariffs.
“This is a step towards a solution… but we will continue to strongly urge the United States to fully eliminate the tariff in a manner consistent with WTO rules,” Japan’s Industry Minister Koichi Hagiuda said on Tuesday.
An official at the ministry said the exclusion of aluminium reflected the US position and was not a request by Japan.