French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot on Wednesday implored the U.S. to take a “cooperative rather than a confrontational approach” after President Donald Trump issued an executive order imposing reciprocal tariffs and a minimum tariff of 10% on all imports.
Hours after what Trump described as a “Liberation Day” announcement on Wednesday, Barrot said he would like “our American allies” to reconsider imposing the tariffs, which would impact all products coming into the U.S. and all of America’s trading partners.
The White House shared a chart of how the reciprocal tariffs would be applied to dozens of countries – the European Union would face a 20% reciprocal tariff as it places a 39% tariff and other trade barriers on U.S. goods.
Barrot said tariffs are “taxes on the middle classes,” adding that they will ramp up prices for American families at the gas pump and supermarket. He also said imposing the tariffs would lead the European Commission to retaliate in some way, “as it does when Europe’s trade interests are affected.”
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“It would do so by mobilizing all the instruments it has available to combat coercion measures – broadly speaking, its deterrence instruments. And it currently has some especially powerful instruments available enabling it to go well beyond the imposition of tariffs in response to any tariffs imposed on European products,” Barrot said.
He mentioned the possibility of imposing taxes on exports and imports, potentially restricting access to European procurement contracts and potentially restricting European single market digital and financial services.
Barrot said America has a “vital need” for the European economy for multiple reasons, adding that $335 billion in US Treasury bonds are held by France.
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“Our single market enables its businesses to develop, and I’m thinking in particular of the big U.S. digital companies, which make a quarter of their revenues in Europe – that’s several hundred billion euros … And also because European savings help finance the U.S. economy and the U.S. public deficit,” he said, in part.
The politician concluded his statement by saying France is the oldest ally of the U.S. and “obviously want[s] to avoid all this.”
Trump has already announced a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum imports, which directly hits the European Union, along with a 25% tariff on imported cars, which will affect nations like Germany. The EU has threatened retaliatory tariffs of up to $28 billion.
The United States’ trade deficit with the European Union was $235.6 billion in 2024, which Trump described as “an atrocity.”
Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin and Fox News Digital’s Caitlin McFall contributed to this report.
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