With 25% tariffs on Japan and South Korea, US President Donald Trump has continued to punish allies and reward traditional adversaries like Russia and North Korea that face zero tariffs. Such a behaviour the purported US pivot to the Indo-Pacific and risk alienating traditional allies.

The country’s new president, in office for a little over a month, had just dispatched his senior deputies to Washington to try to work out a trade deal.

New vehicles from the Japanese auto makers Subaru and Honda are seen at a parking lot in the Port of Richmond, as trade tensions escalate after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would impose a 25% tariff on goods from Japan and South Korea starting on August 1,