Trump customs duties: “We have to be ready,” says Macron

“I think we have to be ready to react. But I think that, more than that, the EU must be ready to defend what she wants and what she needs, “said Emmanuel Macron during a recorded exchange on Thursday, on the American channel CNN and broadcast Sunday.

“When I look at the situation, my first question in the United States is: What is your first problem?” Is it the EU? I don’t think. Your first problem is China, “said the French president, recalling that the EU was the” ally “of the United States. “If you want Europe to invest more and engage in security and defense, I think it is in the interest of the United States not to attack Europe and not to threatening it with customs tariffs, “he continued.

The new American president Donald Trump has been agitating the specter of commercial wars for several weeks and suggested that the European Union should soon be concerned by customs duties. “The EU treated us very badly,” he told journalists at the end of January.

Customs duties on steel and aluminum

If he granted Canada and Mexico a stay of a month, he maintained the application of 10 % additional customs duties on Chinese exports to the United States and announced on Sunday to tax, on Monday, Steel and aluminum imported in the United States up to 25 %. “I will announce customs duties on steel on Monday. All the steel arriving in the United States will have 25 % customs duties, “said the US head of state on the presidential plane that led him to New Orleans to attend the Super Bowl, the final of the Professional American football league. The republican billionaire added that the same fate would be reserved for imported aluminum.

During his first mandate (2017-21), Donald Trump had already imposed customs duties on steel and aluminum in order to protect the American industry which he considered to be confronted with unfair competition from Asian countries and Europeans. Donald Trump also said on Sunday that he would announce “Tuesday or Wednesday” of “reciprocal customs rights”, in order to align the taxation of products entering the United States with the way in which American products are taxed abroad. “If they tax us 130 % and we do not tax them, it will not remain like that,” he added. “This will not affect all countries because some impose the same customs duties as us. But those who take advantage of the United States will be returned the same, “he added.