Leavitt Faces Backlash For Claiming Japan Imposes "700% Tariff" On U.S. Rice

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stirred controversy in Japan after claiming the country imposes a 700% tariff on American rice—an example, she said, of the “egregious” trade barriers the U.S. faces, Japan Times reporter Yukana Inoue covered the reaction.

Japan has long sought to protect its domestic rice farmers, making rice imports a frequent point of trade friction.

“Look at Japan, tariffing rice 700%,” Leavitt said. “President Donald Trump believes in reciprocity, and it’s about dang time we have a president who looks out for American businesses and workers.”

She made the remark while defending the administration’s decision to impose an additional 25% tariff on Canadian steel and aluminum.

However, Leavitt’s claim is only partially accurate. While Japan does impose high tariffs on certain rice imports, the actual tariff on U.S. rice is lower today.

Japan has long sought to protect its domestic rice farmers, making rice imports a frequent point of trade friction, especially during World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations in the 1990s.

Under a 1995 WTO agreement, Japan imports 770,000 metric tons (MT) of rice annually without tariffs.

However, for rice imported outside this “minimum access” framework, the tariff is closer to 400% today, not 700%, according to Nikkei. Japan only imports 100 to 200 MT of rice beyond this quota, equivalent to just 0.03% of the tariff-free imports recorded in 2017.

Despite the tariff debate, Japan’s agriculture ministry reported that in 2023, the U.S. supplied the largest share of Japan’s tariff-free rice imports, totaling 350,000 MT under agreements that also included Thailand, China, and Australia.