French Minister Urges US to Rethink Sweeping Tariffs, Warns of Retaliation

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot issued a strong plea to the United States on Wednesday, urging the Trump administration to reconsider its newly announced blanket tariffs on imports and adopt a “cooperative rather than a confrontational approach,” Fox News reports.

His remarks came hours after President Trump declared a “Liberation Day” and signed an executive order imposing reciprocal tariffs and a minimum 10% tariff on all imports into the US.

Barrot expressed concern that the tariffs, impacting all goods entering the US and affecting all of America’s trading partners, would ultimately hurt American consumers.

“Tariffs are taxes on the middle classes,” he stated, warning that they would lead to higher prices at gas pumps and supermarkets.

The White House released a chart detailing the proposed reciprocal tariffs, revealing a 20% tariff on goods from the European Union, citing the EU’s existing 39% tariff and other trade barriers on US products as justification.

Barrot emphasized that the EU would retaliate if the US proceeded with the tariffs.

“The European Commission would retaliate in some way, ‘as it does when Europe’s trade interests are affected’,” he said, adding that the EU possesses powerful “deterrence instruments” capable of extending “well beyond the imposition of tariffs in response to any tariffs imposed on European products.”

He outlined potential countermeasures, including taxes on exports and imports, restrictions on access to European procurement contracts, and limitations on the European single market’s digital and financial services.

Highlighting the interconnectedness of the two economies, Barrot argued that the US has a “vital need” for the European economy. He pointed to French holdings of $335 billion in US Treasury bonds, the importance of the European market for American businesses, particularly US digital companies which generate a quarter of their revenues in Europe, and the role of European savings in financing the US economy and public deficit.

“Our single market enables its businesses to develop, and I’m thinking in particular of the big U.S. digital companies, which make a quarter of their revenues in Europe – that’s several hundred billion euros … And also because European savings help finance the US economy and the US public deficit,” he elaborated.

Barrot concluded his statement by emphasizing France’s historical alliance with the US:

“France is the oldest ally of the US and obviously want[s] to avoid all this.”

The minister’s comments follow earlier announcements by the Trump administration of a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum imports, which directly targets the European Union, as well as a 25% tariff on imported cars, impacting nations like Germany. The EU has already threatened retaliatory tariffs of up to $28 billion.

President Trump has repeatedly criticized the United States’ trade deficit with the European Union, which stood at $235.6 billion in 2024, describing it as “an atrocity.”