U.S. and Japan at Odds Over Terms of $550 Billion Investment

River Akira Davis

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The United States and Japan will announce details of their trade deal later this week, a pact that calls on the Japanese government to make $550 billion in investment available to be directed by President Trump, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Monday.

Japan agreed to the investment, which it said would be financed through government-backed loans and guarantees, as part of a trade deal it reached with the United States last month. In exchange, the Trump administration agreed to a 15 percent tariff on Japanese imports, a rate lower than it had previously threatened to impose.

Mr. Lutnick, speaking on Fox News, said the agreement would call for the Japanese money to be “at the hand of Donald Trump, and he can go invest it” in areas that are important to American economic security such as rare earth minerals, semiconductors and antibiotic drugs.

The comments by Mr. Lutnick reiterated the Trump administration’s claim that it will have final say over what kind of projects Japan’s pledged spending will fund. Mr. Trump has also said the United States will receive virtually all the profits from those investments.

But Japanese officials have stressed that the investments in the United States will be determined by whether they also benefit Japan. They also maintain that profits are to be allocated according to each side’s committed risk and financial contribution.

Neither government has released documents detailing what they agreed to last month, leaving each side to offer, on certain points, different public explanations of what they agreed to.

The divergence underscores the continuing uncertainty raised by the rollout of Mr. Trump’s trade agenda, which aims to induce companies to return manufacturing to the United States. After raising U.S. tariffs to their highest level in a century, Mr. Trump said he would negotiate individual pacts with dozens of countries. He has so far announced deals with a handful of trading partners, including Japan, South Korea and the European Union. Most remain handshake agreements.