Donald Trump is trying to squeeze American rice supplies into Japan without a trade negotiation.
In a Truth Social post Monday afternoon, the president claimed that the Japanese people and their government were “spoiled” because they wouldn’t buy American rice. He then promised to send them a “letter,” in which he would assert the current rate of trade between the two nations.
“To show people how spoiled Countries have become with respect to the United States of America, and I have great respect for Japan, they won’t take our RICE, and yet they have a massive rice shortage,” Trump wrote, casually insulting the nation with which America has one of its largest trading relationships. “In other words, we’ll just be sending them a letter, and we love having them as a Trading Partner for many years to come.”
Japan has been struggling with a rice crisis for the last couple of years. The grain, which is a foundational ingredient in Japanese cooking, first started slipping from supermarket shelves in 2023, when extreme heat waves led to low crop yields. Then, a possible “megaquake” warning last year inspired people to panic-buy the pantry essential. The ensuing shortage has seen rice prices more than double since the crisis began, reaching between 4,500 and 5,000 yen, according to government data.
But Trump’s threat is particularly ill-timed, leaving the U.S. president with little negotiating power on the matter: Japan’s national supermarket association reported last week that the shortage appears to be easing, with prices for a five-kilogram bag dropping below 4,000 yen for the first time in the last two months, finally reaching the target goal set by Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
Rice has become a sticking point in U.S.-Japanese trade negotiations. In March, Trump pledged to impose a 24 percent “reciprocal” tariff on Japanese imports, with its automobile and metals industries facing a slightly higher rate at 25 percent. Since a 1993 World Trade Organization arrangement, Japan has imported 770,000 metric tons of rice each year without tariffs—approximately half of which comes from the U.S., Time reported.
Changing the arrangement in favor of U.S. goods will face enormous pressure from Japanese leadership: the Liberal Democratic Party, which has been in power almost continuously since it was founded in 1955, has staunchly opposed adding a special quota for American rice imports.
The plea followed an embarrassing flub for America’s relationship with its longtime ally on Sunday, when Trump seemingly forgot the name of Japan’s prime minister in an interview with Fox News, instead referring to Ishiba as “Mr. Japan.”
In the same interview, Trump said that the letters would serve as the “end of the trade deal,” suggesting that no negotiations will take place after the White House hits the mailbox. “We don’t have to meet. We understand, we have all the numbers,” he said.
It’s not the first time that Trump has offered to stamp out trade talks by issuing a string of letters. He made similar promises on May 16 and June 11, claiming both times that the letters would be issued in a handful of weeks, though that never came to fruition.
The post Trump Desperately Begs Japan for His Weirdest Trade Deal Yet appeared first on New Republic.
