Trump unveils first Japan investments under trade pact

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced Japan’s planned investments in US energy and critical minerals projects, the first tranche under a bilateral trade pact, ahead of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s Washington visit.

The commitments amount to $36 billion, the US Commerce Department said in a separate statement.

The projects they cover are a natural gas facility in Ohio, a crude oil export facility in the Gulf of Mexico, and a synthetic industrial diamond manufacturing facility, the department added on social media.

“Japan is now officially, and financially, moving forward with the FIRST set of Investments under its $550 BILLION Dollar Commitment to invest in the United States of America,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

The US leader did not provide further details on the financing of the projects, or specify which companies would be involved.

But the Commerce Department offered more information, noting that the Ohio facility is expected to generate 9.2 gigawatts of power.

The synthetic industrial diamond manufacturing facility — which Trump indicated would be in Georgia — will “onshore production 100 percent of US demand for synthetic diamond grit,” the department added.

It noted that this is “a critical input for advanced industrial and technological production.”

Meanwhile, the crude oil export facility is set to generate $20–$30 billion annually in US crude exports, said the Commerce Department.

Trump’s Truth Social post initially said Japan’s investment would cover a liquefied natural gas facility.

In July, Tokyo had agreed to invest $550 billion through 2029 “to rebuild and expand core American industries,” according to the White House.

The pledge was made in exchange for reducing threatened US tariffs of 25 percent to 15 percent on Japanese imports.

But Japanese trade minister Ryosei Akazawa has said that only one to two percent of the $550 billion would be actual capital.

The rest will be made up of bonds and loans from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and credits guaranteed by the Japanese state.

The clock has been ticking ahead of Takaichi’s planned White House visit on March 19, and according to media reports, tempers were starting to fray.

The rollout of the trade and economic agreement is likely to be a key item on the agenda for Takaichi’s expected meeting with Trump.

“The scale of these projects are so large, and could not be done without one very special word, TARIFFS,” Trump wrote on social media.