Caleb Petitt fears that President Trump’s high-pressure tariff tactics will “drive a wedge between America and its strongest allies in the Indo-Pacific” and hence are a strategic blunder (National Review, July 10, 2025).
These tariffs are not retaliatory. Tariffs in South Korea are lower than 1 percent on American imports, and tariffs in Japan on American imports are around 3 percent. Rather, the new round of tariffs is a response to bilateral trade deficits, which don’t harm Americans.
South Korea and Japan are important allies of the United States, and these unprovoked, dramatic tariff increases will increase tensions within those alliances with no benefit for Americans…. China, Russia, and North Korea border the Pacific Ocean. If America were militarily challenged by a state actor, it would likely happen in the Pacific.
In such a scenario, we would want to be able to rely on the strategic alliances we have in the region. Our three strongest allies there are South Korea, Japan, and Australia. Japan hosts 52,800 American soldiers, and South Korea hosts 22,800, putting them in first and third place for American troops stationed abroad. The Trump administration’s new tariffs on South Korea and Japan needlessly strain two of our most valuable strategic partnerships.
I don’t see any justification for these tariffs, even as a temporary negotiating tactic. But are Japan and South Korea’s low average tariffs on U.S. goods the whole story of their current trade practices? What about nontariff barriers?
And is there any real risk that the alliance will be ruptured by Trump’s tariff negotiations?
South Korea
With respect to South Korea, the U.S. Trade Representative’s recent report on trade barriers “first noted that the mutual tariffs on most traded goods were eliminated as a result of the U.S.-South Korea Free Trade Agreement” (ChosunBiz, April 1, 2025).
“This can be seen as a correction to President Trump’s previous statement that ‘South Korea’s average tariff is four times higher [than the average tariff of the U.S.].’
“However, the report detailed issues related to beef, imported automobiles, network usage fees, and online platform laws….
“In addition, regarding investment restrictions, [the report] mentioned investment restriction measures in the electricity sector, noting for the first time that foreign ownership of nuclear power is prohibited.”
Discussing South Korea’s restrictions on imports of beef from the U.S., the 2025 Foreign Trade Barriers report observes that a “temporary” South Korean restriction on allowed imports of beef and beef products, agreed to in 2008, is still in effect.
“Prior to 2008, Korea restricted the importation of U.S. beef and beef products, citing concerns related to bovine spongiform encephalopathy. In 2008, the United States and Korea reached a bilateral agreement to fully reopen Korea’s market to U.S. beef and beef products. However, as a transitional measure, Korea required that U.S. beef and beef products imported into Korea be derived from animals less than 30 months of age. This ‘transitional measure’ has remained in place for sixteen years. In addition, Korea continues to prohibit the import of processed beef products, including ground beef patties, beef jerky, and sausage, regardless of age.”
Japan
With respect to Japan, the report welcomes the benefits of previous trade agreements but notes that the U.S. “continues to urge Japan to remove a broad range of barriers to U.S. exports, including barriers at the border, as well as other barriers to entering and expanding the presence of U.S. products and services in the Japanese market…. While Japan’s average [Most-Favored-Nation] applied tariffs are relatively low for non-agricultural products, certain high tariffs have a negative impact on a range of U.S. industrial goods exports to Japan, such as chemicals, fish, wood products, and jewelry.”
China
Among commenters on Petitt’s National Review’s piece, Joseph5 is not alarmed by Trump’s tariffs: “Obviously, South Korea and Japan are two of our most important allies. All three countries know this. However, one could also say that South Korea and Japan are making a strategic blunder by continuing their nontariff trade barriers to U.S. products…. I am sure both countries are in negotiations with the U.S. for a trade agreement and this is Trump’s way of saying ‘faster please.’ ”
On the other hand, FoundersTribe avers: “These Trump tariffs, and the tariffs he just imposed on the whole host of Asian countries which could otherwise represent friendly, low-cost-labor China alternatives, is how we strategically lose to China.”
Also see:
U.S. Trade Representative: “2025 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers”
StoptheCCP.org: “Beyond U.S. and Chinese Tariffs: Understanding Nontariff Barriers to Trade”
