Japan’s Prime Minister Sigeru Ishiba announced that he had contacted the President of the United States, Donald Trump, and agreed to continue talks on the tariffs imposed by Washington.

Ishiba said he urged Trump to reconsider the issue, calling his tariff policy “extremely disappointing”. “I told the president that Japan has been the largest investor in the US for five consecutive years and the tariff policy will hurt the investment potential of Japanese companies,” Ishiba told reporters.

“President Trump presented an honest vision of the current US situation in the global economy. Based on today’s talks (…), the two sides decided to appoint members of their governments to take over the follow-up talks,” he added.

Trump confirmed that he had spoken with Ishiba and that Japan would send a delegation for negotiations. He also noted that “countries from around the world” want to talk to his administration about the tariffs.

Trump’s decision to impose 25% tariffs on imported cars and retaliatory 24% tariffs on other Japanese products is expected to severely hit Japan’s export-based economy. Analysts estimate that the country’s economic growth will contract by 0.8%.