WASHINGTON, Feb 17 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced three projects to be built in the states of Texas, Ohio, and Georgia as part of a $550 billion U.S. investment pledge by Japan.
The projects include a gas power plant in Ohio, an oil and liquefied natural gas project in Texas and a critical minerals facility in Georgia, Trump said on Truth Social. He did not identify the companies involved in the projects nor the specific investment amounts associated with them.
Trump’s announcement follows meetings last week between Japan’s economic and trade minister Ryosei Akazawa and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to sew up initial deals under Japan’s investment pledge connected to a trade deal to cut Trump’s tariffs on Japanese imports to 15%.
But Akazawa told reporters on Thursday that several issues remained unresolved before deals could be announced.
Sources in Japan have told Reuters that a prime prospect for the U.S. investment package is a proposed synthetic diamond plant in the U.S. as the allies push to expand production of a material vital to high-precision manufacturing and reduce dependence on China for industrial diamonds.
Trump offered no specific details on the minerals project. A White House spokesperson could not immediately be reached for clarification.
“The scale of these projects are so large, and could not be done without one very special word, TARIFFS,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“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 dependence on Foreign Sources,” Trump added.
(Reporting by Christian Martinez, David Lawder and Makiko Yamazaki ; Writing by David Lawder and Ismail Shakil; Editing by David Gregorio)
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