Following Donald Trump’s resounding victory in the U.S. presidential election, Tokyo is preparing for substantial shifts in trade, international security and foreign policy.
Particularly top-of-mind in Tokyo is how a second Trump administration will approach international trade and foreign direct investment issues. On the campaign trail, Trump promised to withdraw the United States from the Biden administration’s Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity, impose new tariffs that could potentially hurt Japanese industry and kill a multimillion-dollar deal that would allow a Japanese company to take control of U.S. Steel — a move that could arguably benefit both countries.
Trump has announced several appointments that will reinforce his protectionist approach to trade and further signal that his second administration may take an even harder line on China than the first. Mike Waltz, a three-term Florida congressman who Trump picked to become his national security adviser, penned an op-ed before the election arguing that the United States must refocus its strategic attention away from Europe and toward the Indo-Pacific to “counter the threat” posed by the Chinese Communist Party.
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