French President Emmanuel Macron has said that Europe and the United States have more important things to do than waste time on tariff threats.
This comes after US President Donald Trump announced higher duties on European vehicles. Trump said on Friday that he would increase the tariffs charged on cars and trucks from the European Union this week to 25%, a move that could further harm the global economy as it reels from war in the Middle East.
Trump accused the EU of “not complying with our fully agreed to Trade Deal,” without elaborating. EU and US trade officials were due to meet in Paris today to discuss the issue.
Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen agreed to a trade deal in July 2025 that set a tariff ceiling of 15% on most goods, though the US Supreme Court this year ruled against the legal authority that Trump had used to charge that tax.
Speaking with reporters in Armenia, Macron said, “Especially in the geopolitical period we are experiencing, allies like the United States of America and the European Union have much better things to do than to stir up threats of destabilization.”
“For our businesses, our households, our populations, we should rather send a message of stability and confidence.”
Emmanuel Macron
Macron added that he hoped “reason will prevail soon.” He insisted that agreements must be respected. “If they were challenged again, it would reopen everything,” he said, and warned that “the European Union has instruments that would then need to be activated.”
Macron, in Armenia on a state visit, said that the bloc should be ready to activate its powerful anti-coercion instrument (ACI). Slamming the US President for brandishing “threats of destabilization,” Macron said the EU had “equipped itself with instruments that would then have to be activated, because that is precisely what they are for.”
France has repeatedly pressed for the bloc to unleash the potent ACI trade tool, should Trump make good on successive trade threats aimed at European countries.
The EU has never deployed the instrument, aimed at dissuading countries from exerting geopolitical pressure on the bloc. Dubbed the EU’s “bazooka,” it allows for a range of responses from tariffs on US goods to curbs on the export of strategic goods and the exclusion of American firms from tenders in Europe.
The threat of tariffs comes as Trump fumes over remarks by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said the US has been humiliated by Iran in talks to end the war. Germany is a major automobile manufacturer, and higher tariffs would damage its industry. Trump has since threatened to pull thousands of US troops out of Germany.
Von der Leyen Dismisses Threat Of Another Tariff Hike
Asked at the EU-Armenia summit in Yerevan about the threat of another tariff hike, von der Leyen said, “A deal is a deal, and we have a deal.” She added, “And the essence of this deal is prosperity, common rules and reliability.”
“Now, we are both implementing this deal, while respecting different democratic procedures. On the EU side, we are now in the final stages of implementing the remaining tariff commitments.”
Ursula von der Leyen
Von der Leyen remarked that Washington, just like the bloc, has commitments it must follow.
The commission, the EU’s executive branch, negotiates trade on behalf of the 27 member countries. Von der Leyen said that that “we are prepared for every scenario” if things go wrong.
The European Parliament has given conditional approval to the EU-US trade pact, but a final version still needs to be negotiated with the bloc’s member states.
EU Trade Chief, Maros Sefcovic, was expected to meet US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on the sidelines of a G7 ministerial meeting in Paris. Greer told a news agency that the EU approval process had been “very slow” and that amendments had been introduced that would “limit the deal.” “The President decided that if the Europeans aren’t implementing the deal right now, then we don’t have to implement all of it either at this time,” Greer said Monday.
The European Commission said that it remained committed to the accord. The European Commission, which leads trade policy for the 27-nation EU, has made clear it is keeping its options open should Trump’s new car tariffs kick in, without speculating on what action it might take.
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