Japan has become the ‘obvious target’ for Trump’s next trade salvo

The threat of auto tariffs is back on the agenda, and Japan could be President Donald Trump’s new “number one target.” In a recent conversation with the Wall Street Journal, Trump described his good relations with the Japanese leadership but then added: “Of course that will end as soon as I tell them how much they have to pay.” “The president likes to pick trade fights,” said Derek Scissors, Asia economist at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative public policy think-tank based in Washington D.C. He added that, if a new NAFTA deal is signed with Canada and Mexico, then those countries would be exempted from the ongoing American auto investigation. Given that the European Union has already won an exemption on such tariffs, that would make Japan — a key U.S. ally in Asia — “the number one target.” [Read More Here]