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Japan’s chief trade negotiator has defended a tariffs deal with the U.S., expressing respect for President Donald Trump and calling him a “tough negotiator.”Trade envoy Ryosei Akazawa noted that the pact setting on most Japanese exports to the U.S. at 15% was comparable to a deal between Washington and the European Union. Unlike the EU, Japan did not have to lower its tariffs on U.S. goods, he noted.Japan has also committed to investing $550 billion in U.S. projects.Trump initially set Japan’s tariff rate to increase by 25%.Critics in Japan had ridiculed Akazawa’s repeated trips to the U.S. to work toward a deal as a waste of taxpayer money, saying he should pitch a tent on the White House lawn.Akazawa said talks with his counterpart, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Trump and others in his administration were tense at first. By the time of his eighth trip, a rapport was established enabling the two sides to set an agreement by July.“President Trump was a tough negotiator, but I kept insisting, and he would listen graciously. I have all the respect for him,” he told reporters at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan. “It was a good round of negotiations.”“It goes without saying that, with any government negotiations, there will always be someone who says Japan lost out, no matter what,” Akazawa said.The double-digit tariffs Trump has imposed on imports from various nations were a bitter blow to Japan, a key U.S. ally in Asia. Tokyo especially objected to 25% tariffs Trump ordered for imports of steel and aluminum and automobiles.Japan’s economy depends heavily on exports. Shipments to the United States sank nearly 14% in August compared to a year earlier, the fifth straight month of declines, as auto exports were dented by the tariffs.U.S. tariffs on Japanese automobiles and auto parts are now set at 15%, way higher than the original 2.5%. Japanese automakers also produce many of the vehicles they sell in the U.S. in North America.The friction with the U.S. over tariffs was an added burden for Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s administration. He is due to be replaced as leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party later this week.The Liberal Democrats have ruled Japan almost continuously since the 1950s but they have lost their majority in the lower house, which chooses the prime minister, and will need coalition partners.Akazawa brushed off concerns the U.S. understanding of the deal may differ from Japan’s. He said whoever becomes a next prime minister, Japan has an established tradition of respecting agreements, especially those forged with a foreign country. Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@yurikageyama Yuri Kageyama, AP Business Writer
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E-Commerce
The United States has agreed to allow South Korean workers on short-term visas or a visa waiver program to help build industrial sites in America, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.The announcement came weeks after South Korea flew home more than 300 of its nationals who had been detained in a massive immigration raid at a battery factory being built on Hyundai’s sprawling auto plant campus near Savannah, Georgia.The roundup, along with U.S. video footage showing Korean workers shackled at the hands, ankles and waist, fueled public outrage and a sense of betrayal in South Korea a key U.S. ally that had pledged hundreds of billions of dollars in U.S. investments just weeks earlier in hopes of avoiding the Trump administration’s steepest tariffs.The incident also triggered pent-up frustrations in Seoul over Washington’s failure to act on its long-standing request to improve the visa system for skilled Korean workers, even as the United States presses its ally to expand industrial investments.South Korean companies have been mostly relying on short-term visas or a visa waiver program called the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, or ESTA, to send workers needed to launch manufacturing sites and handle other setup tasks, a practice that had been largely tolerated for years.After bilateral visa talks Tuesday in Washington, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said their American counterparts reaffirmed that South Korean companies can use B-1 short-term business visas or ESTAs to send workers to install, service and repair equipment needed for their projects in the United States. The statement was consistent with earlier remarks by South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun, who, after traveling to Washington to negotiate the workers’ release, said that U.S. officials had agreed to allow them to return later to complete their work.South Korea has called for more fundamental steps, such as creating a new visa category to expand access for skilled workers. But U.S. officials at the Washington meeting said major changes would be difficult because of legislative constraints, according to a statement from the South Korean ministry.Most of the Korean workers detained in Georgia were employed by LG Energy Solution and its subcontractors and held ESTAs as well as other visas.LG said in a statement that it will “thoroughly prepare and work diligently to normalize the construction and operation of our factories in the United States.” Kim Tong-Hyung, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Several pharmaceutical companies have said they will sell drugs direct to patients in the U.S. and offered discounts following President Donald Trump’s calls to bring down drug prices and cut out “middlemen” like pharmacies, insurers and pharmacy benefit managers. The Trump administration announced on Tuesday plans to launch a government-run website called TrumpRx.gov in early 2026, offering reduced prices for prescription drugs. U.S. patients currently pay by far the most for prescription medicines, often nearly three times more than in other developed nations. Trump sent letters to 17 major companies in July demanding they slash U.S. prescription drug prices. Below is an overview of pharmaceutical companies which recently announced direct-to-consumer sales and price cuts in the U.S: PFIZER Pfizer and President Donald Trump said on Tuesday they had cut a deal in which the U.S.-based drugmaker agreed to lower prescription drug prices in the Medicaid programme to what it charges in other developed countries, in exchange for tariff relief. Pfizer will invest $70 billion in research and development and domestic manufacturing and received a three-year grace period during which its products will not be subject to U.S. tariffs on pharmaceuticals, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said. PhRMA U.S. pharmaceutical lobby group PhRMA said on Monday it would launch a new website, AmericasMedicines.com, next January to help patients buy prescription drugs directly from manufacturers. NOVO NORDISK Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk said in August that it would offer its diabetes drug Ozempic for $499 per month to eligible cash-paying patients with type 2 diabetes in the U.S. via its own pharmacy, a tie-up with telehealth service GoodRx and other platforms. It had announced earlier in April that it was working with telehealth firms Hims & Hers, Ro and LifeMD to sell Wegovy to cash-paying US customers. ELI LILLY Eli Lilly said in June it would ship the two highest doses of its popular weight-loss drug Zepbound to cash-paying customers on its website starting early August. ASTRA ZENECA AstraZeneca said on Friday it will sell its diabetes and asthma drugs direct to cash-paying U.S. patients at a discount of up to 70% off list prices. SANOFI French drugmaker Sanofi said on Friday it would offer a month’s supply of any of its insulin products for $35 to all patients in the U.S. with a valid prescription, regardless of insurance status. ROCHE Roche is considering selling its prescription medicines in the U.S. directly to consumers to bring costs down for patients, as part of talks with the U.S. government, CEO Thomas Schinecker said in July. The model could appeal not only to the uninsured or under-insured, but also to insured patients comparing the cost of accessing drugs through insurers with cash prices, an industry source told Reuters. ZEALAND PHARMA Zealand Pharma is considering a direct-to-patient sales model as well as traditional insurer channels for the experimental weight-loss drug it is developing with Roche, its CEO told Reuters in September. BRISTOL-MYERS SQUIBB U.S. pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb will cut prices to eligible U.S. patients for blood clot treatment Eliquis and plaque psoriasis drug Sotyktu, with the latter being offered at a more than 80% discount to the list price, it said in September. WISP Women’s telehealth provider Wisp said in September it expanded its weight-care offerings to include sale and doorstep delivery of Novo Nordisk’s and Eli Lilly’s popular drugs without the need for insurance. It priced Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro at $598, $558, and $489 per month, respectively, with the cost also including consultation, monthly follow-ups, and direct-to-door delivery. ABBVIE AbbVie said on Monday it would launch its ovarian cancer drug Elahere in the UK at a list price matching that in the U.S. following Trump’s demands for drugmakers to offer the U.S. “most-favored-nation” pricing. Javi West Larraaga and Emanuele Berro, Reuters
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E-Commerce
Its a familiar frustration: You miss your connection because of a delayed flight. The line at the customer assistance desk is 30 people deep. The airline app offers little help, and the call center puts you on hold for half an hour. Will you ever escape Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR)? Enter Hopper Technology Solutions (HTS) Assist, a new generative AI travel agent that helps customers with post-booking travel questions, changes, and disruptions. HTS assist was built by Hopper, the mobile-only travel-booking platform thats known for its intuitive, user-friendly interface and for predicting flight prices with near-flawless accuracy and pinging users when its time to book. A few clicksmy trips and contact supportfrom Hoppers main page now opens an interface where travelers can talk to or text the AI assistant for help with things like rebooking missed connections and processing refunds for canceled trips. HTS Assist is built to converse in natural languageits been trained on millions of real-world conversationsand is capable of communicating in 30 different languages. Hopper says it has taken a model-agnostic approach to creating HTS Assist, working with leading large language models and its own travel-specific training data. Crucially, the chatbot is plugged directly into the complex travel tech stack of airline booking platforms, hotel reservation systems, car rental options, payments, and more, allowing other travel companies to offer customers their own version of the customer service chatbot. [Image: Hopper Technology Solutions] HTS Assist already lives inside a couple of partner platformsKorean credit card company Lotte Card and Japanese bank Sumitomo Mitsui Banking (SMB)with more deals in the works, according to Hopper. These partnerships are handled by Hoppers B2B arm, Hopper Technology Solutions, or HTS, which currently powers the travel portals of Capital One, Uber, Lloyds, and others with personalized booking software. HTS is now responsible for 90% of Hoppers revenue. This new agent could unlock even more. A growing demand for shrinking customer service Over the past few decades, the number of frontline service reps has steadily shrunk, even as passenger numbers climb. (American Airlines, for example, cut 8.2% of its customer service positions last year.) Automated phone trees and maddening chatbots have taken their place, infamous for endless loops and little transparency, leaving travelers stranded at the exact moment they need help most. Travel is one of the most stressful, emotionally charged, and operationally complex industries, says Jo Lai, head of AI solutions and customer Experience at HTS. Unlike other consumer categories, when things go wrong in travel, peoples lives are immediately disrupted. Hopper believes HTS Assists capabilities are uniquely suited to bridge the gap between customer demandhalf of travelers require some kind of servicing during their tripand rising expectations: travelers want instant, consistent resolutions across various platforms. The assistant can be scaled during peak surges without requiring an army of new hires, and it resolves issues with the same tools human agents use. HTS Assist doesnt mind if its helping one person or 65,000, says Frederic Lalonde, Hopper founder and CEO. Its there for you immediately, and stores all of your information in one place. According to Hopper, HTS Assist works four times as fast as traditional customer service channels. And cost savings for companies could be meaningful. Thanks to fewer backlogs, lower error rates, and less reliance on constantly hiring and retraining agents, Hopper estimates that airlines and travel providers could reduce service costs by up to 65%. Assist could also drive ancillary revenue. If a passenger misses a flight, the agent will first comb through available benefits like meal or hotel vouchers. If those fall short, it offers hotel stays or car rentals that feel like natural extensions of the interaction. So far, 15% of AI agent conversations have led to ancillary sales. Putting the assistant to the test The travel industry is already awash in chatbots offering to help with everything from travel planning to booking. Tripadvisor has an AI assistant tailor-made for trip planning. Marriott is testing a personalized chatbot for its loyalty program members that can act as both a booking agent and concierge. Airlines of all stripes, meanwhile, have debuted chatbots, with varying degrees of success. As they’re discovering, a good chatbot can solve problems and smooth travel hiccups. A bad one just makes things worse. To get a sense of HTS Assist’s capabilities, Fast Company participated in a few live demos to test the system against common traveler frustrations: missed flights, refund requests, and alternative plans. Prompted by Lai, the virtual assistant worked fluidly through a casual back and forth. The first demonstration was based on Hopper Technology Solutions flagship design for potential external partners. Playing the part of the rushed traveler, Lai interrupted HTS Assist (it recovered easily) and asked it to handle trickier tasks, like rerouting rental cars to different drop-off locations and syncing with friends travel plans. The assistant also asked helpful questionsa manual or automatic car?that trimmed down options. The design interface, which shifted colors and communicated behind-the-scenes thinking with a trio of merging dots, was almost meditative. We can also dial up or down the assistants formality and empathy level, says Lai, depending on a companys culture, branding, and voice. A second set of self-led demos via Hoppers in-app chat and customer service phone line was a bit more clunky, and has yet to incorporate HTS Assists new design and feel (that will roll out in the coming days). The assistant couldnt upgrade a flight to business class, for example, without canceling and rebooking the flight altogether. It also couldnt add a day to a hotel reservation without also canceling and rebooking new dates. Still, it was compellingit listed airline baggage fees associated ith our reservation, for example, and it had tips for going through security in Canada, the flights country of origin. HTS Assist also cant replicate the sympathetic agent who ignores an overweight bag or lets you change seats free of charge (yet). But it is designed to escalate to a live agent when needed. And while the technology is currently focused on post-booking fallouts rather than the travel planning journey, the ladder is certainly on the horizon. Were really excited about the AI commerce category and conversational commerce as a whole, says Lai. For now, at least, you wont be stuck at EWR.
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E-Commerce
The U.S. federal government shut down one minute into October, bringing with it uncertainty about jobs and the economy. The shutdown hasnt brought significant turmoil to the stock market as of yet. Most notably, futures have dropped but not significantly, with the Dow shrinking 0.41%, the S&P 500 down 0.45%, and the Nasdaq losing 0.50%, at the time of publishing. Meanwhile, gold prices have skyrocketed in response to the shutdown, reaching an all-time high early Wednesday morning that neared $4,000. Just after the days 12:01 a.m ET shutdown, spot gold reached over $3,894, while U.S. gold futures hit $3,922. Both have since dropped slightly, but remained at significant highs at the time of publishing. Gold prices have risen significantly this year amid increasing economic uncertainty and a weaker dollar. As of early Wednesday, they were up roughly 46% year to date. Investors tend to gravitate toward so-called safe-haven assets during times of uncertainty. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were also up on Wednesday as the shutdown began. How bad could depend on how long Historically speaking, a typical government shutdown shouldnt have a lasting impact on the economy, experts point out. Government shutdowns tend to be high profile though low-impact market events, according to a report last week from financial company Truist. In the previous 20 shutdowns, there has been almost no change, on average, for the S&P 500, while it has been in positive territory 50% of the time during the shutdown period. However, Truist notes that this is barring a prolonged shutdown. Most government shutdowns have gone on for less than a few days, though the most recent oneduring President Trump’s first term in officelasted from December 22, 2018 to January 25, 2019. That’s a record total of 35 days. The Congressional Budget Office reported that it cut $3 billion in real GDP for the last quarter of 2018. At the time, about 300,000 employees were furloughed, while another approximately 500,000 individuals had to work without pay. All federal workers received back pay once the shutdown was over. As Truist notes, this influx of payments should allow the GDP to recover on its own. But this time around, the shutdown could bring permanent job loss, according to a memo viewed by Politico ahead of the shutdown. Under Director Russ Vought, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) instructed agencies to look at removing employees working on programs, projects, or activities that have another source of funding, will see their discretionary funding lapse on October 1, and dont align with Trumps priorities. Pushback has been swift. On Tuesday, U.S. Representative James Walkinshaw, a Democrat from Virginia, called the OMBs order an illegal power grab in an MSNBC opinion piece. The same day saw the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) sue the Trump administration for these mass firing threats. The groups claim that the administration is misusing the shutdown process for partisan ends and violating the very laws that govern how shutdowns are supposed to function.
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E-Commerce
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