The French President urges Europeans to prepare to respond to any tariffs Trump may impose
French President Emmanuel Macron urged Europeans on Sunday to be prepared to respond to any potential tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump, in an interview broadcast Sunday by CNN.
“I think we must be ready to… respond, but I think, beyond that, the European Union must be ready to defend what it wants and needs,” Macron said in the interview conducted Thursday and broadcast Sunday.
“My first question to the United States is: What is your first problem? Is it the European Union? I don’t think so… Your first problem is China,” the French president continued, recalling that the bloc is an ally of the United States.
“If you want Europe to invest more and engage in security and defense,” he added, “I think it’s in the interest of the United States not to attack Europe and not to threaten it with tariffs”.
The Elysee President warned of the consequences of any such measure on the Americans, saying, “If you impose customs duties on several sectors, this will lead to an increase in prices and create inflation in the United States”.
Since taking office for a second non-consecutive term on January 20, the new US president has been threatening to impose tariffs on US trading partners, and last week he said European products would be targeted very soon with tariffs.
“The European Union has treated us very badly,” Trump told reporters late last month.
While he suspended for a month tariffs he had ordered on Canada and Mexico, he kept in place those he had ordered on China, including an additional 10% tax on goods.
On Sunday, he announced that the United States would impose 25% tariffs on its imports of steel and aluminum, starting Monday.
Macron announced on Sunday that France will attract investments worth 109 billion Euros in the coming years, in an interview with France 2.
“It’s the equivalent for France of what the United States announced regarding Stargate… The proportion is the same,” Macron said on the eve of the opening of an international summit on artificial intelligence in Paris.
In mid-January, US President Donald Trump announced $500 billion in investments in artificial intelligence as part of a project called “Stargate”.
Macron explained that the investments will come from the UAE, major US and Canadian investment funds, and also French companies, referring to the two telecommunications operators, Iliad and Orange, as well as the Thales electronics group.
The Elysee Palace announced on Thursday that the UAE will build a complex in France focused on artificial intelligence, with a giant data center with a computing capacity that could reach one gigawatt, which represents investments worth between 30 and 50 billion Euros.
Canadian investment fund Brookfield intends to invest 20 billion Euros in France by 2030 to develop data centers, according to information published by the French newspaper La Tribune Dimanche on the sidelines of the Artificial Intelligence Summit in Paris.
On Sunday, French startup Mistral AI announced that it would invest billions of Euros in building its own data center in France.
