WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said Japan has given him, as part of a new trade framework, $550 billion to invest in the United States. “Japan is putting up $550 billion in order to lower their tariffs a little bit,” Trump said Thursday. “They put up, as you could call it, seed money.”He said 90% of any profits from the money invested would go to the US even if Japan had put up the funds. “It’s not a loan or anything, it’s a signing bonus,” the Republican president said, on the trade framework that lowered his threatened tariff from 25% to 15%, including on autos.A White House official said the terms are being negotiated and nothing has been formalised in writing. The sum is significant: It would represent more than 10% of Japan’s entire gross domestic product. The Japan External Trade Organisation estimates that direct investment into the US economy topped $780 billion in 2023.
