France has strongly responded to Donald Trump's "imperialist stance" and has threatened to "attack" digital giants. "Trump thinks he is the master of the world," denounced Government spokesperson Sophie Primas. "But we have a wide range of tools in this trade war."
Primas stated that the EU's "initial response" will come in mid-April and will start with aluminum and steel. The next target, she anticipated, will be "products and services (American), such as digital services, which are not currently taxed but could be."
The French Government spokesperson went even further and explicitly used the acronym GAFAM (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft) among the services that could be affected, as well as "access to public markets."
President Emmanuel Macron called for an urgent meeting at the Elysee Palace on Thursday afternoon with all sectors affected by Trump's tariff increase.
One of the sectors that will suffer the most significant impact will be the wine industry: the United States is the largest global market for French wines, with 3.8 billion euros in 2024. The new tariffs could result in an estimated drop in exports of at least 20%. "The impact will be colossal not only for French companies but also for American consumers," predicted Gabriel Picard, spokesperson for French wine exporters.
French Prime Minister, centrist François Bayrou, stated in a Senate intervention that Trump's decision "will be a catastrophe for the United States and American citizens, and will create immense difficulty for Europe."
"France will respond at the European level because we have no other solutions," added Sophie Primas. "First, we will try to negotiate with the United States, but if not, we have two responses prepared because Trump does not understand the balance of power." "The first will come into effect in mid-April and will respond to the initial attack on aluminum and steel," Primas specified. "The second will be ready by the end of April and will affect all American goods and services. The products that will be affected have not yet been considered."
"The Government wants to first assess the attacks and then make a forecast," concluded the spokesperson. "The tariffs will obviously have an impact on growth and inflation. We do not have figures yet, but we are sure there will be recessionary effects on production and exports."