Breaking News:US, Japan seal ‘massive’ trade deal; Tokyo to invest $550 billion in America; key details of the pact– What Just Happened

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a “MASSIVE Trade Deal with Japan,” under which Tokyo will make a “$550 BILLION commitment to invest in the United States of America.” The White House unveiled three large-scale investment projects backed by Tokyo with a combined value of $36 billion, representing the first tranche under Japan’s $550 billion commitment to invest in the United States as part of the newly agreed trade arrangement. Under the trade deal, the US will slash tariffs on Japanese imports to 15%.The initiatives cover energy exports, power generation and advanced manufacturing, spread across Texas, Ohio and Georgia.Announcing the development on Truth Social, President Donald Trump said, “Our MASSIVE Trade Deal with Japan has just launched! Japan is now officially, and financially, moving forward with the FIRST set of Investments under its $550 BILLION Dollar Commitment to invest in the United States of America — part of our Historic Trade Deal to REVITALIZE the American Industrial Base, create HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of GREAT American Jobs, and strengthen our National and Economic Security like never before..”He added that the projects would focus on “Oil & Gas in the Great State of Texas, Power Generation in the Great State of Ohio, and Critical Minerals in the Great State of Georgia.”The announcement also includes a $33 billion natural gas-fired power plant in Portsmouth, Ohio. Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick said that the facility would generate 9.2 gigawatts of electricity annually, describing it as the largest natural gas-fired generating facility in US history. According to him, the output would be more than enough to power all homes in Ohio.The plant will be operated by SB Energy, a subsidiary of Japanese technology investor SoftBank Group. The additional capacity is expected to strengthen baseload supply at a time when electricity demand is rising quickly, driven by data centres supporting artificial intelligence applications, Reuters reported.Referring to the Ohio facility in his post, Trump wrote, “The scale of these projects are so large, and could not be done without one very special word, TARIFFS. The Gas Power Plant in Ohio (A State I won THREE TIMES!) will be the largest in History, the LNG Facility in the Gulf of America will drive Exports, and further our Country’s Energy DOMINANCE, and our Critical Minerals Facility will end our FOOLISH dependance on Foreign Sources.“A second major project involves Japan’s investment in the $2.1 billion Texas GulfLink deepwater crude oil export terminal off the Texas coast. The White House said the funding would support the development of the offshore facility.Lutnick, as cited by Reuters, stated, “This project is expected to generate $20–30 billion annually in U.S. crude exports, secure export capacity for our refineries, and reinforce America’s position as the world’s leading energy supplier.”Texas GulfLink, being developed by Sentinel Midstream, confirmed its participation in the initiative and said it was “honored to be a trusted partner with the US department of commerce and the government of Japan.”The third project will see the establishment of a synthetic industrial diamond manufacturing plant in Georgia, valued at around $600 million. Lutnick said the high-pressure facility would meet 100 per cent of US demand for synthetic diamond grit, a material used in advanced manufacturing and semiconductor production. The United States currently relies largely on China for such supplies.The White House said the plant would be operated by Element Six, an industrial diamond company and a unit of De Beers Group, the world’s largest diamond producer.It remains unclear how much of the total project costs will be financed directly by Japanese entities and under what specific conditions. Under an earlier US-Japan agreement, profits from such ventures were to be shared equally until Japan’s initial investment was recovered, after which the split would shift to 90-10 in favour of the United States.The announcements followed meetings last week between Lutnick and Japan’s economic and trade minister, Ryosei Akazawa. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Akazawa said that several issues were still unresolved before deals could be formally announced.