\n<\/p>\n
President Trump\u2019s unexpected plan to impose a 25 percent tariff on cars and car parts imported into the United States will not only disrupt supply chains. It will also fuel anger, alienation \u2014 and pressure to retaliate \u2014 among American allies across the globe.<\/p>\n
Many of the countries most affected by the new levies, such as South Korea, Japan, Germany, Mexico and Canada, are already reeling from the Trump team\u2019s disregard for free trade deals already signed and his threats to long-established security relationships.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada said on Wednesday that Trump\u2019s move on tariffs was \u201ca direct attack.\u201d Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said the result, she said, would be \u201cbad for businesses\u201d and \u201cworse for consumers.\u201d Robert Habeck, Germany\u2019s acting economics minister, said, \u201cIt is now important for the E.U. to respond decisively to the tariffs \u2014 it must be clear that we will not back down in the face of the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other leaders reacted in muted terms, hinting that they were still considering how to respond, with another round of tariffs, in addition to this one, expected in early April.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cWe need to consider what\u2019s best for Japan\u2019s national interest,\u201d Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba of Japan told Parliament on Thursday. \u201cWe\u2019re putting all options on the table in considering the most effective response.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tariffs, which threaten both American and foreign carmakers, increase the likelihood of a global trade war. A chain reaction of economic nationalism with tariffs and other measures \u2014 perhaps adding costs for finance and services \u2014 could suppress economic growth globally, spread inflation and add rancor to already testy negotiations with Washington about security.<\/p>\n
The Trump White House has sought to use every tool of American power, including its military support and consumer market, to extract what Mr. Trump sees as a better deal for Americans. But for countries that have spent decades trusting America and tying their economies and defense plans to Washington\u2019s promises, this feels like a moment of reversal.<\/p>\n
American influence, long built on pronouncements about values and the shared riches of free trade, has hardened into what many analysts describe as \u201call stick, no carrot.\u201d In the Trump team\u2019s thinking, critics argue, American gains require pain for others \u2014 friends included.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything is a status competition or a dominance competition,\u201d said Andrew Kydd, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin who incorporates psychology into studies of international relations. \u201cI think this is characteristic of extremists of all stripes \u2014 everything is about exploitation and domination, and to think otherwise is to be blind or na\u00efve.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
As a result, he added, other countries \u201chave to take seriously the articulated goals, however alarming.\u201d That includes threats to seize Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal, plus demands for economic submission to tariffs that weaken the economies of allies.<\/p>\n
The European Union, which governs trade policies for its 27 member states, has been working for months on proposals for counter-tariffs if necessary. Those are designed to target areas of the United States that supported Mr. Trump in the last election. The United States is the E.U.\u2019s largest trade partner, with nearly a trillion dollars of two-way trade last year, so new tariffs and counter-tariffs will have a dramatic impact on both sides, and sharply increase market uncertainty.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
European Union officials have already announced plans to place new tariffs on many American goods \u2014 from lingerie to soy products \u2014 by mid-April, while lifting suspension of previous countermeasures imposed on earlier tariff fights over steel and aluminum.<\/p>\n
That first wave, meant to hit American whiskey<\/a> and motorcycles, was delayed<\/a> to allow for more negotiations and over fears of a stark American response<\/a> that could crush European wine and Champagne exports<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n More potent measures are now likely to follow.<\/p>\n Ms. von der Leyen of the European Commission, said late Wednesday that the European Union would \u201ccontinue to seek negotiated solutions, while safeguarding its economic interests.\u201d<\/p>\n European countries, especially Germany, export many more cars to the United States than they import. Anger about this disparity has been a regular theme for Mr. Trump since the 1980s, long before he went into politics, when he often complained about the numbers of German and Japanese cars on American streets.<\/p>\n The United States is the most important export market for Germany\u2019s auto industry, and the largest three German carmakers make up about 73 percent<\/a> of the European Union\u2019s automotive exports to the United States.<\/p>\n Armin Laschet, a conservative who may become Germany\u2019s next foreign minister, said a robust response to the tariffs must come from the European Union.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Canadian officials \u2014 with an election weeks away \u2014 have issued a similar call for action. On Wednesday, Mr. Carney\u2019s campaign brought him to the bridge at the border with Detroit over which $300 million worth of auto parts cross daily. He unveiled a series of promises for the auto industry including a two billion Canadian dollar ($1.4 billion) fund to reshape it for a future without the United States.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe will defend our workers, we will defend our companies, we will defend our country, and we will defend it together,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In Asia, officials had hoped for softer tariff treatment based on factories already being built in the United States at great expense. \u201cWe invest in America, employ people, and pay the highest wages,\u201d Mr. Ishiba, the Japanese prime minister, said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n And yet, at a moment when economic and military threats seem to be converging for Japan, analysts said his hands were tied: Because inflation is rising with a weakened Japanese yen, Japan cannot afford a trade spat that drives up consumer prices even further. And with a more militarized China on Japan\u2019s doorstep, sending armed ships<\/a> to assert its claims to disputed islands in recent days, the prime minister is most keen to get a clear commitment from Mr. Trump to defend Japan\u2019s security. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is scheduled to arrive in Tokyo this week.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n So far, the Trump administration has sent conflicting signals to America\u2019s largest Asian ally. While Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reaffirmed support for Japan, the president himself has publicly questioned the two nations\u2019 security alliance.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are very much constrained at this moment,\u201d said Ken Jimbo, a professor of international politics and security at Keio University.<\/p>\n South Korea finds itself in a similar position; it has deepened its diplomatic and military dependence on the United States in recent years, as anti-Chinese sentiment rose among its people, and to strengthen deterrence against North Korea.<\/p>\n South Koreans\u2019 fundamental trust in the alliance will survive the latest tariffs, in part because the penalties didn\u2019t target South Korea only but also hit competitors, said Park Won-gon, an expert in South Korea-U.S. relations at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.<\/p>\n But cars are one of South Korea\u2019s biggest export items, totaling $71 billion last year, and the United States was the destination for nearly half. The government called for a meeting with the car industry on Thursday to discuss a response to the tariffs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe U.S. tariffs are expected to pose significant challenges for our automobile companies exporting a large volume to the U.S. market,\u201d said Ahn Duk-geun, South Korea\u2019s trade minister.<\/p>\n On news portals from the left and right, many Koreans expressed outrage that the tariffs were landing just a few days after Hyundai Motor, a South Korean conglomerate, said it<\/a> would invest $21 billion to expand manufacturing in the United States.<\/p>\n William Choong, a senior fellow at the ISEAS \u2013 Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, said that for many Asian allies, it feels as if the United States is a police commander \u201cthat sticks his Glock down the back of the junior cop \u2014 i.e. regional countries \u2014 and starts shaking him down for cash and other valuables.\u201d<\/p>\n Ian Austen contributed reporting from Windsor, Ontario; Choe Sang-Hun from Seoul; Martin Fackler from Tokyo; Emiliano Rodr\u00edguez Mega from Mexico City, Mexico; Jeanna Smialek from Brussels; and Melissa Eddy and Christopher F. Schuetze from Berlin.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n