WASHINGTON—The U.S. said Monday it has agreed to lift import tariffs on Japanese steel imposed by the Trump administration, removing a longstanding irritant in the bilateral relations between the two allies.
The agreement will allow Japan to ship up to an annual 1.25 million metric tons of steel to the U.S. duty free, a level similar to its exports in 2018 and 2019, Biden administration officials told reporters.
The arrangement will help lower the costs of imported steel for U.S. users, while discouraging increases in imports by maintaining tariffs on shipments beyond the agreed-upon level, the officials said.
Saying that oversupplies of basic metals posed a national security threat, the Trump administration in 2018 imposed tariffs of 25% for steel and 10% for aluminum for imports from various trading partners including allies, angering officials from Brussels to Tokyo.
“This agreement, combined with last year’s resolution with the European Union, will help us combat China’s anti-competitive, non-market trade actions in the steel sector,” U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said in a statement.
Underscoring challenges Washington faces in its efforts to curb global oversupplies caused primarily by China, the agreement with Japan lacked some of the key elements included in the deal with the EU.
Japan chose not to agree to a deal to eliminate the aluminum tariff, and negotiations will continue on Japan’s potential entry into a global effort to reduce excess capacity by China and other nonmarket economies and to cut the carbon emissions resulting from manufacturing of metals.
The American Iron and Steel Institute, a trade group, welcomed Monday’s announcement. Kevin Dempsey, president and CEO of the group, said the agreement, by retaining tariffs on excess imports, will “prevent another steel import surge that would undermine our industry and destroy good-paying American jobs.”
Masashi Mizobuchi, a spokesman for the Japanese embassy in Washington, said Japan will continue to seek the complete removal of the steel and aluminum tariffs.
“We see the latest U.S. action as the first step, but we will strongly urge the U.S. for a complete resolution,” he said.
The steel-tariff deal was announced before reaching agreements on those issues because of a strong push from Tokyo, which wanted a treatment similar to that enjoyed by the EU, an administration official told reporters.
The U.S. is currently in negotiations with the U.K., aiming to reach a similar tariff-reduction deal.
Write to Yuka Hayashi at [email protected]
Corrections & Amplifications
Masashi Mizobuchi is a spokesman for the Japanese embassy in Washington. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said the last name is Mizubuchi. (Corrected on Feb. 7.)
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