Emmanuel Macron warned that Europe risks getting divided by Donald Trump’s economic policy and being thrown into a simultaneous trade war with Washington and Beijing.
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The next US administration “will continue to protect the market very strongly, at the risk of dismantling value chains between Europeans and Americans”, the French president said on Wednesday while speaking on a panel about European competitiveness.
“We’re clearly entering a world of tariff wars.”
Trump has floated the idea of imposing a 10 per cent to 20 per cent tariff on all goods coming from abroad, which could impact Europe’s export-reliant industries and countries, such as cars and chemicals.
The transatlantic list of grievances includes green subsidies offered by the Biden administration, steel and aluminium levies and a long-running dispute between Boeing and Airbus.
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This would come on top of trade tensions between Europe and China exacerbated by an anti-subsidy probe the European Union launched with urging from France into Chinese-made electric vehicles. China has responded with tariffs on European brandies, which particularly affects French cognac.