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President Donald Trump signing an executive order putting his trade deal with Japan into place. The agreement will apply a baseline fifteen percent off on nearly all Japanese imports entering the US, including automobiles. The government of Japan has also agreed to invest five hundred and fifty billion dollars in the United States, joining US. Now, I'm very pleased to say, is the United States Secretary of Commas, Howard Luttnet missed the Secretary. Welcome to the program, Sir. I know you
wanted to talk about Japan, so let's do that. I want you to share with us the terms of this five hundred and fifty billion dollar investment fund, a core pillar, of course, of the negotiations that you've been helping to lead with the Japanese. Can you share with us the details this morning, sir.
Sure.
So this is a completely different kind of trade deal than anyone's ever seen before. So the idea is that Japanese government will give five hundred and fifty billion dollars two Dollarsald Trump to invest as the United States and Donald Trump sees fit in America. So the Japanese will get back their money and ninety percent of the profits will go to the American citizens, the American taxpayer.
So Donald Trump, I'll give you an example.
We buy all of our antibiotics, generic antibiotics in China.
So Donald Trump can.
Say, let's go build generic pharmaceuticals in America. Let's build those antibiotics in America. The Japanese will fund it, and then we will have generic antibiotics in America, will no longer be reliant on China.
So it's in his hands to invest.
This is not ordinary foreign companies investing. This is not Midsubishi building a plant in America. This is five hundred and fifty billion dollars buy the Japanese government put in the hands of Donald Trump that he can then invest in America. It's amazing. I mean, it's the thing. I am proud of it. It's the most proud of ever been on a business deal I've ever done.
So it sounds amazing. Do the Japanese think it's amazing? And have they codified this agreement?
They have so yesterday it was all signed.
So the President signed the EO, I signed the MoU with Minister Akazawa in the Commerce Department.
This is signed, it is written.
So what happens is Donald Trump can select the project that he wants, We put a capitol call into the Japanese, they send in the money, and we build the project in America. So if you think about this, five hundred and fifty billion dollars invested during Donald Trump's term is a half a point of GDP given to the United States of America's president by the Japanese government. I mean, this is amazing in order to have a fifteen percent tariff and so they can keep making their cars in Japan.
Let's just downd the details, mister secretary. So the timeline you talked about, the sort of president's term is the reclear timeline here? And what's the enforcement mechanism to make sure it happens.
Well, two things.
Number one, they've committed that they will meet the capitol call.
So when we're building a.
Project, they will fund the project's building during the term. This investment lasts through, meaning they will put out the money.
Through the rest of Donald Trump's term.
So January twenty twenty nine and let's say halfway through, and they've invested two hundred and fifty billion dollars. They stop saying, I don't want to send you any more money. The tariffs pack, you know, pop right back up, and they no longer receive the cash flow from these projects. They would all just stay with the United States of America. So there is just no way they're going to not fund these projects. And Donald Trump is going to deliver to the American people.
And this deal is really it's.
Just, if you think about it, five hundred and fifty billion million dollars of Japanese government's money in order to buy down their tariff in Donald Trump's hands for his availability to invest and build in America. Alaska pipeline scale fifty billion, one hundred billion. Donald Trump wants to unleash the Alaska pipelines. The Japanese will finance it, and it's great for America.
It's fantastic, mister Secretary, you'll appreciate. We've got a number of topics to get through with you in a short amount of time, so I wanted to turn to other issues in India. This came from the President this morning on social media. It looks like we've lost India and Russia for that matter, to deepest, darkest China may they have a long and prosperous future together. This relationship between
the US and India has clearly soured. You your South said earlier this year that India rubbed the US the wrong way. There's an understandable tension that continues to build. But they're not the only ones buying Russian energy. The Chinese are buying Russian energy, and for that matter, of the Europeans too. And I think there's a sense from the Indian side, mister se that they feel singled down, perhaps unfairly. What's your comment, your message for them this morning.
Well, remember before the Russian conflict, the Indians bought less than two percent of their oil from Russia, less than two percent, and now they're buying forty percent of their oil from Russia. What they're doing is because the oil is sanctioned, it's really really cheap, because the Russians are trying to find people to buy it, and so the Indians have just decided, ah, the heck with it, let's buy it cheap and make a ton of money. But
you know what, that is just plain wrong. It's ridiculous, and they either need to decide which side they want to be on, you know, what's funny is remember the Chinese sell the Chinese, Well.
We're always willing to talk.
The Chinese sell to us, the Indians sell to us. To be able to sell to each other. We are the consumer of the world. People have to remember it's our thirty trillion dollar economy that is the consumer of the world. So eventually they all have to come back to the customer, because we all know, eventually the customer is always right.
When you are talking with India, mister Secretary, I know a lot of companies in the US have shifted manufacturing to India from China, so there's a real interest in this in terms of their costs. How much do you feel like you've lost leverage as a result of the court case that came out fairly recently.
We haven't lost any thing with respect to the court case. If you look at the descent, right, it was seven to four.
Read the descent.
The current Chief Justice sided with President Trump, the former Chief Justice sided with President Trump, and the incoming Chief Justice sided with President Trump. And the smartest guy on the band, which is well known who this water's ky on the bench is he sided with Donald Trump. So I think you are going to see the Supreme Court side with Donald Trump, and I don't think we've lost leverage. What we've lost is that India doesn't yet want to
open their market. Stop buying Russian oil, right, and stop being a part of bricks. Right, they're the vowel between Russia and China. If that's who you want to be, go be it. But either support the dollar, support the United States of America, support your biggest client, who is the American consumer, Or I guess you're gonna pay a fifty percent tariff and let's see how long this lasts.
It seems like there's been a hardening of the line, both with President Trump as well as Mody, and a sense that there isn't really a coming together. In fact, that meeting with Jujen Pang and Vladimir Putin and frim mister Mody seem to indicate a coalescing of the bricks. Do you see anywhere in the next month two months any type of deal or backing down to a lower rate with India, I.
Would expect like you saw it in Canada. Right.
The Carney got elected with this term elbows up, meaning let's fight with America.
They put on retaliatory tariffs. They were all bravado, and what happened?
Their GDP negative one point six percent, unemployment rocketing towards eight percent, and what did Carney just do?
He just finally finally dropped his retaliatory tariffs.
So I think what happens is it's all bravado because you think it feels good to fight with the biggest client in the world. But eventually your businesses are going to say, you've got to stop this and go make your deal with America. So I think yes, in a month or two months, I think India is going to be at the table and they're going to say they're sorry, and they're going to try to make a deal with Donald Trump. And it will be on Donald Trump's desk how he wants to deal with Mody, and we leave
that to him. That's why he's the.
President, speaking of making a deal. I understand the Swiss are in town, just tearing that the Swiss Vice president has turned up in the United Stice again. Is the a meeting on the agenda for today going into the weekend.
Yes, So I'm going to meet with the Swiss delegation. They're coming in to make a new proposal and the Trump administration is always willing to listen. But you have to remember, you know, the Swiss like to say they're a small country of only nine million people, a small rich country, and how do they become so rich? They sell us pharmaceuticals like it's going out of style, all right. They make so much money off of America. That's why they're rich. So let's hear what they have to say.
We'll discuss it with the president. You know, I'm not optimistic, but I'm always willing to listen, and Donald Trump is always why are you not optimistic?
Traditionally there's been a decent relationship. Then the president's first term reliant on the Swiss a lot when it came to foreign policy and developments in places like Iran. What's happened this time?
Well, you just consider trade, right, you know, the European Union, Right, they open their market four hundred and fifty million people, twenty trillion dollar economy, and they say, well, take our tariffs down to zero. You the American exporters can sell us everything. I mean, how fantastic is that? And they say we'll pay you fifteen percent and you pay us nothing. I mean, that is really really attractive. Now you go
to Switzerland nine million people. I mean, what are they going to offer the American exporter as compared to the size and scale by which they export and earn money off of us. So the idea is we need balanced in fair trade, and that's a difficult thing. Now you saw the Japanese. They decided to take a completely different path, and what they said is we will we will give Donald Trump the power to invest five hundred and fifty billion dollars as he at his direction, for the benefit
of America. Now that's a different way of thinking. Now, if the Swiss come out of the box with a whole new way of thinking, I'm open minded. But if they just say, our rich companies are going to buy more of America.
I mean, that's what Donald Trump is complaining about.
You realize, in nineteen eighty five, we America owned more of the rest of the world. We owned one hundred and just about one hundred and fifty billion of the rest of the world. And you know in twenty twenty five, when Donald Trump takes office, the rest of the world owns twenty six trillion more of us because they just use all the money they make off of us to buy us, and sooner or later, they're just going to own us. And Donald Trump has said enough of this.
We are going to own ourselves going forward.
Mister Secretary, I know you're your own bus on your own time, but your team is telling us we've got to go shortly. So I'm going to squeeze out a few more minutes if I can. At eight thirty Eastern time, we're meant to get a job's number. This is what we heard from the BLS just moments ago that the Bureau of Labors TOSTIC says it's experiencing a technical problem and data retrieval tools are currently not available on the website. Sir, are we going to see a number in ten minutes time?
I don't know if we're going to see a number, but I tell you it makes it crystal clear you should have fired the person who was running that group right Because it didn't fire them two weeks ago.
You sure heck would be firing them today. So they need new.
Leadership in BLS, that's for sure. They need new tech and BLS, that's for sure. And Donald Trump needs to rely upon the numbers. America needs to rely upon the numbers. You can't have these bent former administration people who have a view and who.
Want to harm the president.
We need accurate numbers coming from BLS and finally, we'll have new leadership to deliver it.
Mister secretary, you're also going to promise new resources for them to increase their collection and increase some of their staff to go out and make this data accurate.
Yeah.
Can you imagine they had people calling around. I mean, come on, computers, computers, Wow, it's twenty twenty five and a half. Computers, new resources, new technology, wildly better information. That's what America demands. That's what Donald Trump's going to give them. And you just need to change leadership every once in a while and make sure we get it right. I'm excited about what's coming. Of course, you fire the person, what do you learn? You learn that their technology is
just a bully. But we'll fix it. We'll fix it.