Trade negotiations can't be forced, former Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez told CNBC on Monday
"I don't think you can put a gun to someone's head and then you say, 'Let's negotiate,'" said Gutierrez, who led the Commerce Department under former President George W. Bush.
"That's not going to work," he said on "Squawk Box."
President Donald Trump announced steel and aluminum tariffs in March to correct what he deemed were unfair trading practices. He had given waivers to certain U.S. allies.
But on Thursday, the administration announced the tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum would indeed go into effect for Canada, Mexico and the European Union.
The move upset many in the international community, and sparked retaliatory measures.
"We've picked a fight with our friends and our allies," Gutierrez said, who is currently chairman of the Albright Stonebridge Group, a business strategy firm.
Gutierrez said trading partners aren't going to "give anyone a sense that they're being pushed around."
"As long as we have a gun on the table and we're saying, 'We have tariffs over your head and unless you give us a good deal, we're going to slap those tariffs on you,' it's not going to work," he said.
White House legislative director Marc Short told CNBC on Monday that ultimately Trump wants a world without trade tariffs.
"The tariffs are part of an effort to get us to hopefully one day where we have true free and fair trade, in which there are no tariffs," Short said.
But for now, Gutierrez pointed out that the global community has become more fragmented as a result of the Trump administration's negotiating style. That's something he said is bad for business.
"We're going to have a world with all this these regulations that don't make global business models make sense," Gutierrez said.
These are "unintended consequences of this trade fight we've picked," he said.
WATCH: How Trump hopes to level the trade playing field
