Trade

Trump’s Trade War Drags Japan’s Economy Down

Written by SK Ashby

There's no end in sight to Trump's trade war and it has had a disproportionate effect on countries that depend on manufacturing exports more than the United States does. Countries such as Japan, the world's third largest manufacturer.

Japan's economy approached recessionary territory during the third quarter of the year according to the Japanese government, growing by just 0.2 percent, and falling demand for industrial goods is being blamed.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s economy ground to a near standstill in the third quarter with growth at its weakest in a year as the U.S.-China trade war and soft global demand knocked exports, keeping pressure on policymakers to ramp up stimulus to bolster a fragile recovery. [...]

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday dangled the prospect of completing the initial deal with China “soon,” but has so far offered no new details on the negotiations.

The dispute has already hit big exporters hard. Japanese electronic giant Panasonic Corp last month reported a 12% drop in its second-quarter operating profit due to slumping sales of electric components to factory owners.

When Japan and the Trump regime agreed to a tentative trade agreement in September, Trump billed the deal as a "game changer," but that clearly hasn't been the case for Japan or the United States. The deal isn't actually law yet, but the two sides are purportedly abiding by the terms of it in the interim period.

Trump said the deal would be a "game changer for our farmers" while Japanese President Shinzo Abe made similar claims at home, but whatever relatively minor value the deal had will be wiped out by Trump's trade war which isn't going to end anytime soon.

Even if Trump's signs some kind of agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping before the end of the year, it's not expected to eliminate the tariffs that led to weakness in global demand; weakness that has dragged down American manufacturing and the economies of our closest allies like Japan.