France has warned the United States that the European Union will hit back at President Donald Trump’s latest tariff announcement.
According to Reuters, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot on Monday, February 10, 2025, announced that the EU will respond to the latest tariff announcement by the US president and will not hesitate to defend their interest.
When asked if France and the European Union will respond, Barrot told TF1 television, “Of course... This is already what Donald Trump did in 2018, and we responded. We will again respond. It (the Commission) is ready to push the trigger when the time has come. Now this time has come. It is in no one's interest to start a commercial war with the European Union.”
He further added that the European Commission will decide which sectors will be affected by the response.
Moreover, this came after the French President Emmanuel Macron threatened that tariffs on the European Union are not in the interests of the Americans.
Macron told CNN in an interview aired on Sunday, February 9, 2025, “If you want Europe to be engaged in more investment in security ... which I think is in the interests of the US, you should not hurt the European economies by threatening them with tariffs.”
He noted that a lot of European savings are financing the American economy, adding, “If you start putting tariffs everywhere, you would cut the link, and it would not be good for the financing of the US economy."
For the unversed, President Trump in January hinted at introducing new tariffs for the EU in the coming days.
