PARIS: The European Union is “ready for a trade war” with the United States and plans to “attack online services” in response to Donald Trump’s new tariffs, the French government spokeswoman said Thursday.
“We are pretty sure that we are indeed going to see an adverse effect on production,“ Sophie Primas told broadcaster RTL, expressing particular concern about the “strong” impact on wine and spirits.
“We have a whole range of tools and we are ready for this trade war,“ she added. “Then we will look at how we can support our production industries.”
Trump “thinks he is the master of the world”, Primas added.
“It is an imperialist stance that we had somewhat forgotten about but which is returning with great force and great determination.”
President Emmanuel Macron will meet Thursday with representatives of French sectors “impacted by the tariff measures” announced by Trump, his office said.
The meeting is set to take place at 1400 GMT.
On Wednesday, Trump unveiled stinging tariffs on major trade partners including China and the European Union on what he called “Liberation Day”.
Primas said the EU was preparing a two-stage response, with “an initial response” to be put in place around mid-April concerning aluminium and steel.
Then the EU will target “all products and services”, with the measures probably ready at the end of April, she said, adding this was still being discussed.
“But we are also going to attack services. For example, online services, which are not taxed today but could be,“ Primas said.
The EU’s response could also concern “access to our procurement contracts”, she said.
– ‘Catastrophe’ –
The French association representing wine and spirits exporters (FEVS) said that the US announcement “will have extremely serious consequences for the French and European wine and spirits sector”.
The association said exports of French wines and spirits to the United States could drop by around 800 million euros ($877 million), with the figure estimated at 1.6 billion euros for the EU.
“Such a decline will have a huge impact on employment and the sector’s economy,“ the association said in a statement.
The measures will also have “an extremely negative impact on American importers, wholesalers and retailers”, according to the statement.
In 2024, France exported around 2.4 billion euros worth of wines and 1.5 billion worth of spirits to the United States, its largest export market.
The FEVS emphasised “the importance of maintaining an open and constructive bilateral dialogue around a positive agenda on transatlantic trade issues.”
Separately, the CNAOC wine and spirits association estimated the impact of the new US tariffs at “several hundred million euros”.
For French-made cognac and armagnac “it is a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions,“ the association said.
