President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he had reached a “massive” trade deal with Japan, helping to allay fears of heightened trade tensions between the United States and one of its closest Asian allies.

In a social media post Tuesday evening, the President wrote that Japan had agreed to open its country to imports of American cars, trucks, rice and other agricultural products, as well as invest $550 billion into the United States. He said that Japanese exports to the United States would be charged a tariff of 15 per cent, lower than the 25 per cent tariff he had threatened against the country’s products if Japan did not strike a deal.

The deal will also lower the tariff the US charges on Japanese auto exports, which are subject to a separate tariff schedule, to 15 per cent, including a pre-existing tariff of 2.5 per cent, according to US and Japanese government officials. That will come as a relief to Japanese car makers, which, like manufacturers in other countries, have faced an additional 25 per cent tariff since April.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba told reporters in Tokyo on Wednesday morning that he had received an initial report about the agreement from Ryosei Akazawa, Japan’s chief trade negotiator, who is in Washington. “I will receive a report on the details in the future and examine them carefully,” Ishiba said.

In a social media post, Akazawa said: “Mission accomplished.” Details of what the two sides had agreed to were not immediately available, but an agreement with Japan would be the most significant of the preliminary trade agreements that the Trump administration has announced thus far.

Indonesia cuts tariffs

In a bid to rework America’s trading relationships, Trump has been threatening stiff tariffs against dozens of countries globally to try to encourage them to strike trade deals with the United States. The White House says that it has reached framework agreements with Britain, Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia, in addition to a trade truce that rolled back tariffs with China.

Indonesia has agreed to eliminate tariffs on more than 99 per cent of US goods and scrap all non-tariff barriers facing American firms, while the US will drop threatened tariffs on Indonesian products to 19 per cent from 32 per cent.

Trump hailed the deal, which he first announced on July 15, in a post on his Truth Social media platform, calling it a “huge win for our Automakers, Tech Companies, Workers, Farmers, Ranchers, and Manufacturers.”

New York Times News Service and Reuters