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The Japanese Prime Minister said that “each option” was being studied and that South Korea has promised an emergency response after President Donald Trump announced 25% prices on car imports to the United States, which increases the risk of a world trade war.
The comments of Shigeru Ishiba in the Japan Parliament came while Trump’s last salvo struck actions in Toyota car manufacturers in Stellantis in Porsche. The Stoxx Europe 600 Automobiles & Pares index dropped 3% at the start of negotiations on Thursday.
Trump said the prices would come into effect on April 2, when Washington is also scheduled to apply a range of reciprocal rates against American business partners.
The tasks on cars are the most aggressive decision so far in a commercial policy, the chaotic deployment of which has been marked by Tours d’U and has shaken investors.
“We have to think about the best option for Japan’s national interest,” said Ishiba. “We are considering all the options in order to reach the most appropriate response.”
Industry leaders have warned that Asian and European car manufacturers are among the hardest. Luxury car manufacturers, such as Jaguar Land Rover and Aston Martin, are also exposed since they do not make cars in the United States.
While the trade partners of the United States ran to respond, the Minister of Industry of South Korea, Ahn Duk-Geun, said that the automotive manufacturers of the country would have undergone “considerable difficulties” because of the prices and had promised to announce emergency measures next month, after a meeting on Thursday with industry leaders.
Robert Habeck, German Minister of the Economy, said that it was “important that the EU gives a united response to the prices”, adding that the block must be “clear that we will not give in to the United States”.
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said late Wednesday on Wednesday that the EU evaluated his options.
British Chancellor Rachel Reeves pointed out that the government did not intend to retaliate, saying that it was not in a “position where we want to do anything to degenerate these commercial wars”.
Stellantis’ shares, the owner of the Fiat, Peugeot and Chrysler brands, fell 5%, Porsche dropped by 4.7%and Volkswagen dropped by 3%.
The manufacturers of European cars were also affected, the French Valeo dropped by 6% and the German continent by 3% less. General Motors and Ford also fell into trade before the market in New York.
The White House decision to impose rights on imported automotive parts as well as completed vehicles would inflict more damage, analysts said. According to research from Bernstein, almost half of the vehicles sold in the United States are imported and cars assembled in the United States contain almost 60% of original parts abroad.
Sigrid de Vries, director general of the European ACTO ACTO industry, urged Trump to “consider the negative impact of prices not only on world car manufacturers, but also on American national manufacturing”.
European manufacturers export up to 60% of the vehicles they make in the United States, according to ACEA.
Japan is the largest exporter of finished vehicles in the United States after Mexico, where Japanese companies are dominant manufacturers. Japan sent $ 40 billion cars to the United States in 2024, representing 28.3% of its global exports to the United States.
Japanese government spokesperson Yoshimasa Hayashi described prices as “extremely regrettable”. He said that the Trump administration’s commercial policy may have a major impact on bilateral links, the global economy and the multilateral trading system.
Ishiba’s February meeting with Trump in Washington was initially praised as a success to reaffirm the strength of the American-Japan alliance.
But Tokyo’s merchants said that the Ishiba tone franchise – as well as the language “each option” – suggested increasing panic in Japan on the solidity of the relationship.
Trump said steep prices would convince foreign companies to make more of their cars in the United States, stimulating the country’s manufacturing industry.
With additional reports from Kana Inagaki and Mari Novak in London and Anne-Sylvaine Chassany in Berlin
