Former U.S. Govt Official: Damage to Allies Caused by U.S.’ Approach Is Concerning; Japan Should Take Pragmatic Approach

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:29 JST, May 26, 2025

WASHINGTON — Former U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Christopher Padilla expressed his concern over the damage the approach taken by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is incurring on U.S. allies, such as Japan and Europe, in an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun.

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

The Yomiuri Shimbun: How has President Donald Trump’s approach on the tariff issue changed in his second term?

Christopher Padilla: The president’s been much more aggressive in the second term in using tariffs. He has used mostly, actually so far exclusively, section 232 — the national security tariffs — for steel and aluminum, but now also for autos and auto parts.

He used [the International Emergency Economic Powers Act] to do these reciprocal tariffs that he announced in April, [and] that’s being challenged in court. There are about four or five different U.S. laws that President Trump could use to impose tariffs, besides IEEPA. So, if IEEPA gets ruled unconstitutional, which it might, he can [still] go do them. IEEPA was a shortcut. It allowed him to declare an emergency and do whatever he wanted.

President Trump is the first to ever use [IEEPA] to impose a tariff. The word tariff does not appear in the text of IEEPA. It gives the president fairly broad powers to do things, including regulating imports, but it doesn’t say he can impose a tariff.

Are we really saying that importing automobiles from Japan is a national security threat to the United States? The president has used [IEEPA] very expansively.

Yomiuri: Why has the United States changed from being an advocate of free trade?

Padilla: If you look throughout our history, there have been many, many times when the United States has been isolationist and turned in on itself and tried to keep out foreign products and foreign people.

After World War II, I think people recognized that it had been a mistake for the United States to be isolationist economically and politically … but the isolationist tendency in the country never went away. Now we’ve had a period of populism, particularly driven by the experience with China.

[Earlier this month], the president announced the pause in the tariffs with China, because we were about to have a situation where you were going to see empty store shelves in the United States. We’re still probably going to see price inflation this summer. When it starts to show up in higher prices and shortages, and people losing jobs … maybe then we’ll turn again and realize that isolationism is a mistake.

We’re doing ourselves tremendous damage. I’m an internationalist. I worked for a president who believed in trade, who believed in immigration. I believe firmly that America is stronger because we are open to foreign ideas, people, products and capital. But my view is in the minority right now, and what I worry about the most is the damage we are doing to our alliances — Japan, Europe, Canada.

Yomiuri: What do you think Japan should do in the negotiations?

Padilla: [The] Japanese government should take — and I believe is taking from what I understand — a very pragmatic approach. We [the United States] are going to try to find some areas where we can work together, maybe on shipbuilding, for example, or on critical minerals cooperation, or dealing with Chinese overcapacity. There are areas where we can cooperate.

Yomiuri: What are your views on “non-tariff barriers” in the automobile market?

Padilla: My understanding is that there’s some discussion that perhaps some of the safety requirements, or the modifications that Japan requires, could be relaxed. That would theoretically make it easier for the U.S. to sell autos in Japan. I think [Trump] wants a deal with Japan. I think he actually has generally positive views toward the prime minister and Japan in general. I think Japan has the opportunity to do an early agreement.

The reason American cars don’t sell much in Japan doesn’t have as much to do with market barriers as it does with different consumer preferences, but the president believes that it’s because of a closed market. In order to give him this win that we’re talking about, I think it would be wise … to offer something on autos. Offering something on non-tariff measures [is] probably relatively easy to do and probably won’t change the market dynamic that much in Japan and gives the president the win that he wants to talk about.

— This interview was conducted by Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer Yuko Mukai.

Christopher Padilla

Padilla was the under secretary of commerce for international trade during U.S. President George W. Bush’s second term and worked at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. During his time at IBM Corp., he was the vice president for government and regulatory affairs. He is currently a senior adviser at consulting firm Brunswick Group, LLC.