Reuters: Amid what appears to be a transatlantic trade tension, France has said the European Union has the necessary tools to respond to fresh tariff measures by US President Donald Trump, according to reports.
French Trade Minister Nicolas Forissier told the Financial Times that the European Union is equipped with instruments to retaliate if required after Washington imposed a 10% tariff on imports from around the world. He said the bloc was coordinating closely with member states and the European Commission to assess its response.
EU has counter measures dubbed as ‘trade bazooka’
Among the options available to Brussels is the EU’s Anti-Coercion Instrument, sometimes dubbed the “trade bazooka”, which would allow the bloc to take wide-ranging countermeasures and could affect US technology companies.
“The ACI has a broad range of powers from export controls to tariffs on services as well as excluding US companies from EU procurement contracts. There is also a suspended package of retaliatory tariffs on more than €90bn of US goods that could be deployed,” the FT report states.
The latest move on tariffs by Trump follows a ruling by the US Supreme Court that struck down much of Trump’s earlier tariff programme as unlawful. In response, the US administration announced a flat 10% tariff on imports from all countries under a different legal authority.
French President Emmanuel Macron had said the US court’s decision demonstrated the importance of checks and balances in democracies and indicated that France would continue to push for a balanced and reciprocal trade relationship with the United States.
