French Prime Minister François Bayrou is criticizing the commerce deal struck by President Trump and European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen as an act of “submission” by the European Union (EU).
“It is a dark day when an alliance of free peoples, united to affirm their values and defend their interests, resolves to submission,” Bayrou stated in a publish on social platform X early Monday.
The settlement units tariffs at 15 p.c for European imports, together with vehicles. That’s decrease than the 30 p.c tariff Trump had threatened to impose on the EU however greater than some European officers would have appreciated to see — particularly after a long time of having fun with low single-digit tariffs for many exports to the U.S.
As a part of the deal, the EU pledged to buy $750 billion price of power from the U.S. and agreed to put money into the U.S. by $600 billion greater than the present investments for different items.
French President Emmanuel Macron has not commented publicly on the deal, however different French officers have joined Bayrou in attacking it as unbalanced.
France’s deputy minister for European Affairs, Benjamin Haddad, stated Europeans should “fight to continue seeking trade balance with the United States” and referred to as for Europe to activate anti-coercion mechanism to tax U.S. digital companies or exclude them from public agreements.
“The current situation is not satisfactory and cannot be sustainable. The free trade that has brought shared prosperity to both sides of the Atlantic since the end of the Second World War is now rejected by the United States, which is choosing economic coercion and complete disregard for WTO rules. This is a structural change. We must quickly draw the consequences or risk fading away,” Haddad wrote in a publish on X, referring to the World Commerce Group.
“This is both an economic and political challenge,” he continued. “Believing that concessions can address it will only encourage predation abroad and the rejection of Europe within our borders by our citizens.”
Laurent Saint-Martin, minister delegate for international commerce and French residents overseas, instructed France Inter in a radio interview Monday, “The good news is that there is an agreement, and therefore our companies have visibility, and there is stability in the transatlantic trade relationship.”
He added, nonetheless, that “this agreement is not balanced, and therefore we will have to continue working,” pointing to U.S. digital companies, the place, he stated, the U.S. “has a surplus.”
“Donald Trump has said for months and months that he wanted to rebalance a trade relationship that is to the detriment of the United States but he only spoke of goods. If we take services, it’s the opposite. So it’s up to us to do this work of balance of power and rebalancing from now on,” Saint-Martin added.
