Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick revealed the unique and historic nature of the recently secured U.S.-Japan trade deal he helped negotiate during a Daily Caller Live event Thursday.
President Donald Trump’s administration brokered a trade agreement with Japan where the East Asian country pledged to invest $550 billion in the U.S., Trump announced in a Wednesday statement on Truth Social
During the Caller’s Live Event presented by the American Beverage Association, Lutnick outlined the significance of the trade deal which he was a key part of securing.
“When I say it’s historic, what that means is it’s completely, intellectually above anything anybody’s ever done before,” Lutnick told Daily Caller editor in chief Dylan Housman.
Facing a 25 percent tariff that presented difficulties for their auto industry, Japan agreed to an unprecedented deal that Lutnick had originally thought of in January and had been pitching President Donald Trump on for months, the secretary told the Caller.
Japan agreed to fund “any project for national security or that’s important to Donald Trump in the United States of America,” Lutnick said.
His brainchild idea will see Japan collect a 10 percent return on investment while the U.S. will retain the other 90 percent of profits from U.S.-based enterprises that Japan invests in. (RELATED: Sec. Howard Lutnick Headlines Daily Caller Live Event, Highlights Trump Admin’s Trade Breakthroughs)
“This isn’t Toyota investing in America. This is the Japanese government saying to Donald Trump, ‘we will finance — we will finance, at our cost.”
In exchange for the deal, the U.S. lowered tariffs on Japan from 25 to 15 percent, Lutnick revealed.
“So they will still pay 15 percent, we will pay zero — and they provided us $550 billion,” he said.
He also provided an example of the type of projects Japan could help fund, taking aim at China’s stranglehold on generic pharmaceutical manufacturing.
“We don’t make generic pharmaceuticals. They’re all made primarily in China. Think about that for a second — our antibiotics are made in China? That seems kind of …”
“Not safe,” Daily Caller editor in chief Dylan Housman chimed in.
“Not safe. Good word. I like that word. If you start hearing me say that, ‘not safe,’ you know where I got that from,” Lutnick replied.
“So we tell the Japanese government, ‘we want to build generic pharmaceuticals, here’s the project, it’s $15 billion.’ They give us the $15 billion and we build generic pharmaceuticals here as provided by them. And then when that company operates and makes some money, we split the profits 90% for the American taxpayer and 10% for the Japanese,” Lutnick explained.