France presses EU to unload ‘trade bazooka' on US — despite tariff deal with Trump: ‘Complete disregard for the rules'

New York Post

2 days ago

France has been pushing its fellow European Union members to unload its so-called 'trade bazooka' on the US — both before and after the EU struck its historic deal with President Trump over the weekend, The Post has learned.
France's President Emmanuel Macron — who in February was smiling and joking with Trump in the White House as the pair gushed over the historic bond between the two nations — has been pushing back forcefully on the 'unfair' trade deal in recent days, according to a diplomatic cable obtained by The Post.
France was alone in on Friday as it called for the EU to slam the US with the so-called 'anti-coercion instrument' — a legal provision that gives EU officials sweeping powers to impose export controls and stiff taxes, according to the cable from a closed-door meeting of ambassadors from all 27 EU nations.
5 The hardline French stance could upend the long-running bromance between Emmanuel Macron and Donald Trump. The two leaders enjoyed each other's company in February despite tensions over sending more arms to Ukraine.
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'Only France called for the immediate establishment of the anti-coercion instrument even in the event of a deal,' the leaked cable said, referring to a never-before-used EU law, which is loosely based on the US Trade Act 1974.
The 'trade bazooka' also gives EU officials the power to restrict intellectual property rights, curtail foreign investment, or even outright ban some US services.
In a fiery X post written in French on Monday, France's Europe Minister Benjamin Haddad went public with the 'trade bazooka' demand, claiming the US 'has chosen economic coercion and a complete disregard for the rules of the WTO,' referring to the World Trade Organization.
'We must quickly draw the necessary conclusions or risk being wiped out,' he wrote — signaling that the 'anti-coercion instrument' should be deployed as soon as possible.
Haddad warned that Paris would not back down in its bid to impose huge levies on US tech giants and block American firms from winning lucrative government contracts in Europe.
5 French Europe Minister Benjamin Haddad, a close ally of President Macron, blasted the US-EU agreement as 'unbalanced' and suggested France should push to trigger the bloc's so-called 'trade bazooka' as soon as possible.
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'American digital services continue to benefit from tax loopholes in Europe,' Haddad said, describing the deal as 'unbalanced.'
'We cannot be the last suckers in a game of rules that no one respects.'
Two EU diplomats told The Post that France is furious because the trade deal will grant some US agricultural exports zero-tariff access to the European market, potentially threatening its much-cherished farming sector.
French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou, a Macron appointee, slammed the pact in an early morning social media missive.
'It's a dark day when an alliance of free peoples, united to affirm their values and defend their interests, resolves to submission,' he wrote on X.
5 French PM Francois Bayrou also tweeted his disgust at the agreement announced in Scotland, likening to 'submission' by EU officials.
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One White House insider hit back, telling The Post: 'The US runs a trade deficit with the EU as a whole, and France specifically, in large part due to unfair, one-sided trade barriers. The only one-sided giveaway to protest here was how the US accepted these unfair trading conditions for decades until President Trump came along.'
Any move to deploy the EU's trade bazooka would require agreement of a majority of EU governments.
The Elysee, the French presidential office, did not respond to The Post's request for comment.
The accord, for lower than the 30% Trump had threatened on EU imports, will add an estimated $90 billion to US coffers.
Europe also agreed to buy $750 billion in American energy products, invest $600 billion in new money in the US and purchase additional US military equipment, according to the terms of the preliminary agreement.
5 The deal announced on Sunday drew rebuke from European politicians who said the EU had caved in too easily to President Trump, who is seen here with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.
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'This is the danger when you put political pygmies in charge of high-stakes negotiations with the US,' fumed Anders Vistisen, a Danish lawmaker in the European Parliament.
'President Trump has just played the EU like a fiddle. This is literally the Art of the Deal,' he told The Post.
Ursula von der Leyen, the German official who leads the European Commission in charge of the negotiations, called the deal a 'framework' agreement, with the finer details to be thrashed out 'over the next weeks.'
The anti-coercion instrument was originally drafted to deal with China bureaucrats that Brussels accused of illegally dumping products inside the EU market.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a staunch ally of the president, said Trump 'ate von der Leyen for breakfast.'
5 Anders Vistisen, a Danish lawmaker in the European Parliament, claimed that President Trump had 'played the EU like a fiddle.'
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Trade in goods between the EU and the US totaled about $976 billion last year. The US imported about $606 billion in goods from the EU and exported around $370 billion in 2024.
That imbalance, which economists describe as a trade deficit, has been a sore point for Trump, arguing that trade relationships like this mean the US is 'losing.'
The White House has already struck tariff agreements with Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.
The Trump administration also sealed an agreement in May with the UK.