Trump unveils first Japan investments under trade deal with US
The president hailed the projects – a critical minerals site, a gas power plant and an LNG facility in the US – ahead of PM Takaichi’s visit
Japan plans to invest US$36 billion in US oil, gas and critical mineral projects, the first tranche of its US$550 billion commitment under the trade agreement it struck with President Donald Trump.
“Our MASSIVE Trade Deal with Japan has just launched!” Trump posted on Tuesday on social media. “The scale of these projects are so large, and could not be done without one very special word, TARIFFS.”
The most significant investment is a natural gas facility in Ohio that is expected to generate 9.2 gigawatts of power, according to a statement from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, a massive project which Trump described as “the largest in history”.
Japan is expected to invest US$33 billion in the gas plant, which will be led by SoftBank Group subsidiary SB Energy, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing anonymous Commerce Department officials.
The second project is a deepwater crude export facility in the Gulf of Mexico, according to Lutnick. Trump earlier in his social media post offered a different description, saying the investment would cover a liquefied natural gas facility off the coast of Texas.
Japan is also expected to invest in a synthetic industrial diamond manufacturing facility, which Trump’s post indicated would be located in Georgia. The diamonds are a “critical input for advanced industrial and technological production”, Lutnick said. The Journal reported that the project would receive a US$600 million investment and would involve Element Six, a subsidiary of De Beers.