After months of fraught negotiations with the United States, Japan clinched a deal just days before punitive tariffs were scheduled to take effect.

Japan's trade agreement with the U.S. could serve as the benchmark for many other deals currently being negotiated with Washington, and the global economy could just about support the 15% level agreed overnight,

Donald Trump said the US had agreed a “massive” trade deal with Japan that will impose 15 per cent tariffs on goods imported into America from the world’s fourth-largest economy.