France Warns EU Could Take ‘Extremely Aggressive’ Actions in Response to Trump Tariffs

France’s trade minister said the European Union’s response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs could be “extremely aggressive” amid increasingly heated rhetoric from Paris.

Speaking ahead of crunch talks in Luxembourg, French Minister of Foreign Trade Laurent Saint-Martin said that Brussels must consider all options in the trade dispute with the United States.

“We must not exclude any option, on goods, on (American) services and open the European toolbox, which is very complete, which can also be extremely aggressive in return,” the minister said per Le Figaro.

Saint-Martin pointed to “anti-coercion” measures within the EU code, which he said could freeze access to European public markets or even prevent U.S. companies from investing in the trading bloc.

The comments from the trade minister back up similar comments from Paris in response to what the Trump administration has characterised as “reciprocal tariffs” intended to rectify the trade restrictions and tariffs imposed by the EU and other nations on American exports.

Last week, President Emmanuel Macron called for French firms to suspend investments in the United States amid the trade dispute.

This was echoed over the weekend by Economy Minister Éric Lombard, who said that French companies should show “patriotism” by not investing in America, saying: “It is clear that if a large French company agreed to open a factory in the United States, it would give the Americans a point.”

In contrast to the dramatic proclamations from Paris, neighbouring Germany, which has suffered more economically since the Ukraine war and whose critical auto industry has already been left reeling by the energy crisis and the influx of cheap Chinese EVs, has urged for more caution in dealing with the Trump White House.

Speaking from Berlin on Monday, government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said that Europe should not react emotionally to the Trump tariffs.

“We don’t want to bring about a trade war, but the goal should be to further reduce trade barriers,” he said, but added that Germany will seek to “protect our domestic companies from what other extensions come.”

While Germany and France represent the two largest economies in Europe and thus have considerable sway over EU policy, the ultimate decision-making process on trade will be conducted in Brussels.

The EU’s top trade envoy, Maroš Šefčovič, said that the Trump administration’s reciprocal tariffs demonstrated a “paradigm shift” in the trading relationship between the United States and Europe. The Slovak diplomat said that Brussels will seek to provide “adequate support” to prop up European industries and simultaneously move to “accelerate” trade talks with the rest of the world.

The comments came as European and other global markets were rattled as they opened on Monday, with the pan-European Eurostoxx 600 index falling by approximately five per cent as of midday.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Sunday evening, U.S. President Donald Trump suggested that the short-term pain of market contractions would be worth the long-term gains made by incentivising businesses to reshore industries to America.

“I don’t want anything to go down, but sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something — and we have been treated so badly by other countries,” he said.

President Trump claimed that seven trillion dollars have already been “committed to be invested in the United States” as a result of the tariffs, including to build auto plants and chip companies.

“What is going to happen with the market, I can’t tell you, but I can tell you that our country has gotten a lot stronger and eventually, it will be a country like no other. It will be the most dominant country economically in the world.”

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