US criticizes Japan over Tokyo’s rice tariffs

By Berk Kutay Gokmen

ISTANBUL (AA) – The United States has slammed Japan’s tariffs on rice imports, urging “fair and balanced trade practices.”

"Look at Japan,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told a Tuesday press conference, “tariffing rice 700 percent.”

According to Japan's Kyodo News, however, under the minimum access commitment set by the 1993 Uruguay Round agreement on trade in agriculture, hundreds of thousands of tons of rice enters Japan each year free of tariffs.

"President Donald Trump believes in reciprocity," Leavitt said, indicating that Japanese rice could be affected by the tariffs the Trump administration intends to implement next month.

"All he's asking for at the end of the day are fair and balanced trade practices," she added.

In February, Trump instructed officials to create plans for reciprocal tariffs, with the goal of aligning the tariffs imposed by the US with those set by trading partners.

Trump’s threats of tariffs and the uncertainty around them – sometimes made and then withdrawn within hours – have rocked world financial markets and economies since he started his second term this January.