U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said she will visit India, Japan and Vietnam along with other countries in the coming weeks as part of tariff negotiations.
Rollins suggested to reporters at the White House that she will push those major U.S. trading partners to increase imports of American farm products and help rectify trade imbalances.
"Deals are being negotiated right now," Rollins said, "Next week, I'll be in England discussing these things. A few weeks after, I'll be in Italy, then soon after that, Vietnam, Japan and India."
"I'm reflective of a larger cabinet effort on behalf of this president to get out into the world to expand the markets," she said, referring to Donald Trump, who has unleashed a series of hefty tariffs on foreign goods since taking office in January for a nonconsecutive second term.
Her remarks came after Japan and the United States held their second round of tariff negotiations at the ministerial level in Washington last week.
Japan's chief tariff negotiator Ryosei Akazawa agreed with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and other U.S. cabinet members to hold intensive ministerial discussions from mid-May onward, with the aim of a "mutually beneficial deal" as early as June.
But sources with knowledge of the ongoing talks later said the two countries are far from narrowing differences over Trump's tariffs, including new 25 percent levies on car and auto parts imports.
Without providing details, Trump told reporters on Monday he plans to announce tariffs aimed at reviving the U.S. pharmaceutical sector within the next two weeks.
For Japan, removing the auto tariffs is particularly important, with officials in Tokyo saying they have no intention of reaching a deal with the Trump administration unless all its additional protectionist measures are reviewed.
Still, according to the sources, the Trump administration has refused to grant Japan a full exemption from the new tariffs, saying only the country-specific part of the so-called reciprocal duties will be negotiable.
Like almost all countries, Japan now faces a baseline tariff of 10 percent and sector-based duties such as those targeting the auto and steel industries.
The country-specific portion, which Trump put on hold until early July under a 90-day pause, differs for each U.S. trading partner. In the case of Japan, the additional rate is 14 percent.
On Monday, Rollins said the administration was "realigning an entire world economy around American products," and that the benefits to U.S. farmers and ranchers would outweigh impacts to "any other American producer and whatever they're producing."
© KYODO
15 Comments
Login to comment
HopeSpringsEternal
Here's a key person, Secretary Rollins to help Japan and US LOWER Agricultural Tariffs and in doing so create Economic Growth and Lower Inflation in BOTH countries!
PS. She's been given huge credit for solving the 'egg' crisis in US, prices skyrocketed in 2024 and early 2025, but are now about 50% below their early February peak
John
She says she'll be visiting England.
Oh, okay. So she won't be visiting Britain this time. She's really clued up.
GuruMick
Crawler.....thats what we would call her in Australia.
Come on...big MAGA dont negotiate with anyone.
Yrral
These people are cratering the US economy and American are clueless of their incompetent ,my advice is American to.take their money out of banks while they have some
OssanAmerica
The Secretary of Agriculture today has to try and get other countries to buy US agriprods. The oversupply of US agricultural products caused by China reacting to Trump's tariffs- no longer buying soybeans and the 10% tariff on soybeans, pork, beef, and dairy, and 15% tariff on corn, wheat, cotton, and chicken.
Funny that China is imposing 10% on US Pork with the biggest US producer Smithfield owned by WH Group Hong Kong, which also owns 146,000 acres of US farmland.
HopeSpringsEternal
Consumers globally deserve lower agricultural tariff and non-tariff trade barriers, that only benefit a tiny minority of producers and the political class. Consumers deserve more choice, lower prices and greater economic activity!
wallace
There are no Japanese tariffs on 90% of US agriculture.
The United States and Japan have a trade agreement, specifically the U.S.-Japan Trade Agreement (USJTA), which entered into force on January 1, 2020.
William77
The yanks create the mess all around the world and then pretend to negotiate.
At least the EU and other nations had the spine to counterbalance these tariffs unlike Japan begging to his master.
I'veSeenFootage
Seeing as the EPA is actually gutting all possible environmental protections, Japan can lool forward to american fruits and vegetables filled to the brim with poisonous pollutants! MAGA!
Nibek32
American agriculture uses round up which is linked to cancer. No thanks.
bass4funk
No, we have a variety of choices, more so than Japan, so if Japan wants the best of the best natural and organic, we've got them covered, not to mention RFK is working on getting a lot of the poisonous junk out of the cheap mainstream daily products
Not always, and there are other countries that use similar products as well.
China, Canada, Brazil, Australia, Argentina and India also use some versions similar to "Glyphosate."
TokyoLiving
Japan, please have some dignity..
Don't fall in the usual dirty traps of good old US..
OssanAmerica
That claim has not been substantiated.
WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer classified glyphosate as "probably carcinogenic to humans" (Group 2A)
US Environmental Protection Agency concluded that glyphosate is "not likely to be carcinogenic to humans" at doses relevant to human health risk assessments.
The Eurpoean Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and Germany's BfR found no conclusive evidence linking glyphosate to cancer in humans under normal exposure conditions
garymalmgren
Good try Bass. BUT.......
The United States uses many agricultural chemicals that have been banned or phased out in other countries, particularly in the European Union (EU), Brazil, and China. In 2019, the U.S. used over 70 pesticides banned in the EU, totaling 322 million pounds, which was over a quarter of all U.S. agricultural pesticide use.
Of course AI could be wrong and the US actually uses more chemicals than is disclosed!
As for RFK "working on it", one man vs the argi-chem industry .
I wouldn't hold my breath on the out come of that one.
Pukey2
OssanAmerika:
As one bright politician from your country said a few days ago - "forget about China, let's just sell our beef to India."