Japan Jolted by US Tariff ‘Stacking’ as Trade Confusion Mounts

The US has imposed higher tariffs than Japan expected on a broad range of its goods, a senior Japanese ruling party official said Thursday, after a day of confusion over what exactly had been agreed between the two countries.

Japan faces “stacking” tariffs, where a new 15% levy is added to existing import taxes, even though it had expected to be given an exemption stripping out the old tariffs, Liberal Democratic Party policy chief Itsunori Onodera said in Tokyo.

“The tariffs have been imposed with no exemption, so the rate has risen by 15% as it stands,” Onodera said. “We ...