Japan, EU Should “Cooperate on Rules-Based Trade’; Former Trade Negotiator Counsels Caution Over U.S.

The Yomiuri Shimbun

20:00 JST, April 19, 2025

BRUSSELS — Ignacio Garcia Bercero, a former chief negotiator of the European Commission, said in an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun that Japan, the European Union and other U.S. allies should cooperate to counter the tariff policy imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump and maintain the free trade system.

Bercero, 66, also expressed his view that Trump’s tariffs, which arise from an obsession with trade deficits, are arbitrary. He said that the United States’ leadership as a standard-bearer for free trade in the years since the end of World War II has ended and that Trump’s tariff policy would mark a historic turning point.

The following excerpts from the interview have been edited for flow and clarity.

The Yomiuri Shimbun: How should the EU proceed in negotiating with Trump?

Ignacio Garcia Bercero: Well, it’s very difficult to say because he’s not very clear on exactly what are the expectations of the United States. One point I hope will be very clear for the European Union is that in no case should we be making any offer to the United States if it would be against our international commitments, against our WTO [World Trade Organization] commitments. I think that is a very important principle that needs to be respected in any negotiation.

Yomiuri: Is there any difference between the Trump administration in his first term of office and his administration now?

Bercero: My impression is, at that point in time, the U.S. had fundamentally one target for a straight conflict, and that was China. And therefore it didn’t want to open too many fronts and open too many conflicts with allies. Unfortunately that is not necessarily the world we are living in today.

Now it appears to be ready to open up a trade conflict with the whole world. So this is a much more difficult situation than the one that we were facing in the previous Trump administration.

Yomiuri: Can the EU maintain its relationship with the United States in the future? What should that relationship be like?

Bercero: Well you know, the United States has traditionally been a very strong ally of the European Union. It is the central partner for European security, and also quite frankly a country that we share many common values with.

But, quite frankly, we need to get used to the idea that, under certain conditions, the United States can be ready to take very, very hostile actions vis-a-vis the European Union, and therefore the European Union needs to be much more self-reliant.

When it comes to trade, when it comes to defense, when it comes to general European Union policies, we need to be able to be more autonomous.

Yomiuri: Could you give advice on how Japan should negotiate with the United States?

Bercero: Now the United States may have decided to move away from rule-based trade, but I think for Japan, for the European Union, for many others, it is critical to have a rule-based trading system.

I think it is clear that the United States is going to try to put pressure on different countries. And that’s also why I really think it is important that Japan, the European Union, Canada, Australia, many countries that have a common sense that we are allies of the United States, but at the same time, we are very concerned about what the United States is doing. We [should] cooperate as much as possible to see how to maintain rule-based trade.

Ignacio Garcia Bercero

Bercero worked for the European Commission, the executive body of the European Union, for 37 years beginning in 1987. He was mainly involved in trade negotiations. He was chief negotiator for the EU-South Korea and EU-India free trade agreements, as well as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. He joined Bruegel, a research institute based in Belgium, as a nonresident fellow in September 2024.