On Friday, April 3, 2026, the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) hosted a symposium titled “The World After the Trump Administration and the International Trade Order,” organized by GRIPS Alliance’s Research Group on the Transformation and Future Outlook of the International Economic Order (Chair: Haruhiko Kuroda, GRIPS Alliance Senior Fellow. The event brought together participants from government ministries and agencies, research institutions, media, and academia, generating active and substantive discussion.

Against the backdrop of significant disruption to the international trade order, including unilateral tariff measures under the second Trump administration, the symposium marked the release of policy recommendations outlining concrete steps to revitalize the multilateral free trade system through cooperation among like-minded countries. The recommendations reflect approximately one year of deliberations within the Research Group and present a realistic and actionable pathway for future international trade rule-making.

Summary of the Policy Recommendations
The Recommendations, titled “Constructing a New International Trade Order for Maintaining and Advancing the Free Trade System,” address structural challenges facing the WTO-centered system and proposes a new framework built on two complementary pillars.

1. Strengthening Trade Disciplines
Like-minded countries would establish high-standard disciplines through a plurilateral agreement to address issues such as excess capacity, non-transparent subsidies, and state-owned enterprises. Participating countries would benefit from stable market access under high-standard FTA tariff schedules (in principle, zero tariffs), while non-participating countries would be offered phased preferential treatment linked to progress under a “reform roadmap,” encouraging broader participation, including from the Global South. The long-term objective is integration into a more effective WTO framework.

2. Economic Security Cooperation
To address urgent risks such as the weaponization of economic interdependence and supply chain vulnerabilities, like-minded countries would strengthen cooperation in areas including diversification of critical supply chains, coordinated responses to economic coercion, and protection of critical technologies and infrastructure. Flexible instruments such as intergovernmental MOUs would enable timely and adaptive collaboration.

The Recommendations call on Japan to leverage its experience with high-standard trade agreements—including CPTPP and the Japan–EU EPA—to act as a “rule-shaper” bridging advanced economies and the Global South, and to take a leading role in advancing this initiative.

Highlights of the Event
The symposium opened with introductory remarks by Chair Haruhiko Kuroda, followed by a presentation by Senior Professor Keisuke Iida on the substance and significance of the policy recommendations. A panel discussion then followed, with Chair Kuroda and Senior Professor Iida joined by Professor Tsuyoshi Kawase (Sophia University) and Specially Appointed Professor Naoko Munakata (The University of Tokyo), moderated by Professor Jun Iio. A lively Q&A session further deepened participants’ understanding of the future of the international trade order.

Download the Policy Recommendations
Constructing a New International Trade Order for Maintaining and Advancing the Free Trade System