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Gulf Today
9 hours ago
- Gulf Today
US reaches deal with Japan, tariff cut
The United States, riding a tariff wave launched by President Donald Trump, has concluded a trade agreement with Japan, the fourth largest economy in the world, in Washington on Tuesday. According to the agreement, the US will impose 15 per cent tariff on all goods imported from Japan. This is a much lower rate than the 25 per cent that Trump had threatened Japan with from August 1. Even as the deadline hovered over the talks, the two sides managed to arrive at an agreement much before the dreaded date. Trump had declared on his Truth Social, his personal portal, 'This Deal will create Hundreds and Thousands of Jobs – There has never been anything like it. This is a very exciting time for the United States of America, and especially for the fact that we will continue to always have a great relationship with the Country of Japan.' Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said, 'Since February, we have been negotiating with our national interests at stake. Both sides have engaged in all-out, close-to-the-edge negotiations over automobiles and other products. I believe this outcome reflects those efforts.' The trade agreement reflects interesting details. Though it appears that the United States has gained hugely going by the headline figures – Japan will have to invest $550 billion in the United States, open its agricultural sector to American rice – the impact on the Japanese GDP would be a mere 0.55 per cent. Even if the tariff rate had remained at the apparently punitive 25 per cent, the impact on Japanese GDP would have been 0.85 per cent. The US was running a trade deficit of $69.4 billion. And Japan will channel the investments in the US from state-backed institutions like Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) or through guaranteed loans. The Japanese investments are to be made in semi-conductors, pharmaceuticals, steel, shipbuilding, critical minerals, aviation, energy, automobiles, AI and quantum technology. The sensitive area for Japan is the import of rice. Japan consumes seven million tonnes of rice every year. It maintains a tariff-free quota of 770,000 tonnes. And it will increase the ratio of US rice imports within this range. It is said that there is room for rice imports outside the free tariff quota, with the proviso of 341 yen ($.2.33) per kilogramme of rice. Prime Minister Ishiba referring to the opening of rice imports from the US, said, 'You can think of it as increasing the proportion of rice procured from the United States, under the minimum access arrangement, but this agreement does not include any provisions that would sacrifice agriculture.' Both sides have bargained hard, and each side has claimed victory. The Japanese believe that that they have succeeded in bringing down the reciprocal tariff rate from 25 per cent to 15 per cent, a clear 10 per cent reduction. The US believes that it has managed to force Japan to necessarily invest in the US – according to the deal $550 billion – and that 90 per cent of the profits made from the investments will remain in the United States, and that it has succeeded in prising open the protected agricultural market, especially with regard to rice. It is expected that the US-Japan trade deal will serve as a template for the trade agreements with the European Union (EU) and China. The expectation is that the US will settle for a 15 per cent tariff with these two as well. The US is willing to be reasonably generous with big trade partners like Japan, EU, and China. But with smaller countries and economies like the Philippines and Indonesia it is playing tough. In the deal with the Philippines and Indonesia, the US has brought down the tariff regime from 20 per cent to 19 per cent. The trade balance of the US with these two countries is much lower, $17.9 billion with Indonesia and $4.9 billion with the Philippines.
Middle East Eye
a day ago
- Middle East Eye
US condemns France's release of political prisoner Georges Abdallah
The United States has voiced strong opposition to France's decision to free Georges Ibrahim Abdallah and deport him to Lebanon. 'The United States opposes his release,' said State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce in a statement shared on X. 'His release threatens the safety of US diplomats abroad and is a grave injustice to the victims and the families of those killed,' claimed Washington Washington also said it would continue backing efforts to seek justice in the case. Abdallah, a pro-Palestinian Lebanese fighter, was jailed in 1984 for the killing of an American and an Israeli diplomat in France. After serving nearly four decades, a French appeals court ordered his release, citing the length of his imprisonment and his age, calling continued detention 'disproportionate.'
Gulf Today
a day ago
- Gulf Today
Families of Americans slain in West Bank lose hope for justice
When Sayfollah Musallet of Tampa, Florida, was beaten to death by Israeli settlers in the West Bank two weeks ago, he became the fourth Palestinian-American killed in the occupied territory since the war in Gaza began. No one has been arrested or charged in Musallet's slaying — and if Israel's track record on the other three deaths is any guide, it seems unlikely to happen. Yet Musallet's father and a growing number of US politicians want to flip the script. "We demand justice,' Kamel Musallet said at his 20-year-old son's funeral earlier this week. "We demand the US government do something about it.' Still, Musallet and relatives of the other Palestinian-Americans say they doubt anyone will be held accountable, either by Israel or the U.S. They believe the first word in their hyphenated identity undercuts the power of the second. And they say Israel and its law enforcement have made them feel like culprits - by imposing travel bans and, in some cases, detaining and interrogating them. The grave of Sayfollah Musallet, who was beaten to death by Israeli settlers while he was visiting family in the West Bank town of Al Mazra as-Sharqiya, is seen. AP Although the Trump administration has stopped short of promising investigations of its own, the US embassy in Jerusalem has urged Israel to investigate the circumstances of each American's death. Writing on X on July 15, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said he'd asked Israel to "aggressively investigate the murder" of Musallet and that "there must be accountability for this criminal and terrorist act." Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and 28 other Democratic senators have also called for an investigation. In a letter this week to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Attorney General Pam Bondi, they pointed to the "repeated lack of accountability" after the deaths of Musallet and other Americans killed in the West Bank. Israel's military, police and Shin Bet domestic security agency did not respond to requests for comment about the Palestinian-Americans' deaths. A memorial poster showing Sayfollah Musallet, who was beaten to death by Israeli settlers, is displayed outside of a bakery in West Bank. AP American-born teenagers Tawfic Abdel Jabbar and Mohammad Khdour were killed in early 2024 by Israeli fire while driving in the West Bank. In April 2025, 14-year-old Amer Rabee, a New Jersey native, was shot in the head at least nine times by Israeli forces, according to his father, as he stood among a grove of green almond trees in his family's village. In the immediate aftermath of both cases, Israeli authorities said that forces had fired on rock throwers, allegations disputed by the families and by testimony obtained by the AP. Israel pledged to investigate the cases further, but has released no new findings. The teens' families told the AP they sought independent investigations by American authorities, expressing doubts that Israel would investigate in good faith. According to the Israeli watchdog group Yesh Din, killings of Palestinians in the West Bank rarely result in investigations - and when they do, indictments are uncommon. Mourners carry the bodies of Sayfollah Musallet and Mohammed Al Shalabi during their funeral in the West Bank village of Al Mazraa a-Sharqiya. AP The US Justice Department has jurisdiction to investigate the deaths of its own citizens abroad, but does so after it gets permission from the host government and usually works with the host country's law enforcement. The US embassy in Jerusalem declined to say whether the US has launched independent probes into the killings. A spokesperson for the embassy said in a statement that investigations are "underway' in Israel over the deaths of the four Americans and that its staff is pressing the Israeli authorities to move quickly and transparently. Sen. Van Hollen said that when the U.S deals with Israel it "either doesn't pursue these cases with the vigor necessary, or we don't get any serious cooperation.' "And then instead of demanding cooperation and accountability, we sort of stop - and that's unacceptable. It's unacceptable to allow American citizens to be killed with impunity," the Maryland Democrat said. A man tidies the graves of Sayfollah Musallet, left, and Mohammed Al Shalabi, both of whom were killed by Israeli settlers in the West Bank town of Al Mazra. AP Israel says it holds soldiers and settlers to account under the bounds of the law, and that the lack of indictments does not mean a lack of effort. A prominent recent case was the death of Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist for broadcaster Al Jazeera killed in the West Bank in 2022. An independent U.S. analysis of the circumstances of her death found that fire from an Israeli soldier was "likely responsible' for her killing but said it appeared to be an accident. Despite an Israeli military investigation with similar conclusions, no one was ever disciplined. Rather than a path toward justice, the families of Khdour, Rabee, and Abdel Jabbar say they've faced only challenges since the deaths. Khdour, born in Miami, Florida, was shot and killed in April 2024 while driving in Biddu, a West Bank town near Jerusalem where he lived since age 2. U.S. investigators visited his family after the killing, his family said. Abdel Jabbar was killed while driving down a dirt road close to Al Mazra as-Sharqiya, his village in the northern West Bank. Khdour's cousin, Malek Mansour, the sole witness, told the AP he was questioned by both Israeli and American investigators and repeated his testimony that shots came from a white pickup on Israeli territory. He believes the investigators did not push hard enough to figure out who killed his cousin. "The matter ended like many of those who were martyred (killed),' said Hanan Khdour, Khdour's mother. Two months after the death, Israeli forces raided the family's home and detained Mohammad's brother, Omar Khdour, 23, also an American citizen. Videos taken by family and shared with the AP show Omar Khdour blindfolded and handcuffed as Israeli soldiers in riot gear lead him out of the building and into a military jeep. He said he was threatened during questioning, held from 4 a.m. to 3 p.m., and warned not to pursue the case. Omar Khdour said Israeli soldiers at checkpoints have prevented him from leaving the West Bank to visit Israel or Jerusalem. Two other American fathers of Palestinian-Americans killed since Oct. 7, 2023 reported similar restrictions. Hafeth Abdel Jabbar, Tawfic Abdel Jabbar's father, said he and his wife were blocked from leaving the West Bank for seven months. His son, Amir Abdel Jabbar, 22, remains restricted. The father of Amer Rabee says he and his wife have also been stuck in the West Bank since their son's killing. He showed AP emails from the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem in which a consular official told him that Israel had imposed a travel ban on him, though it was unclear why. Israeli authorities did not respond to comment on the detentions or travel restrictions. Rabee said that in a land where violence against Palestinians goes unchecked, his family's American passports amounted to nothing more than a blue book. "We are all American citizens,' Rabee said. "But here, for us, being American means nothing." Associated Press
