White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt created a stir in Japan on Wednesday when she accused Japan of imposing a 700% tariff on American rice as an example of what the U.S. government views as “egregious” duties levied by their trade partners.
“Look at Japan, tariffing rice 700%,” she said on Tuesday. “President (Donald) Trump believes in reciprocity, and it is about dang time that we have a president who actually looks out for the interest of American business and workers.”
Leavitt made the remarks as she explained Washington’s decision to impose an extra 25% to tariffs on steel and aluminum from Canada, using a graph that also showed the Japanese tariff.
