French President Emmanuel Macron has hit out at “bullies” as he called for U.S. tariffs on European countries to be abolished.
Macron made the comments in a strongly-worded address to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday, which followed U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to put 200% levies on French wines, as punishment for resisting U.S. attempts to annex Greenland.
Without mentioning Trump by name, Macron said: “We need more growth. We need more stability in this world, but we do prefer respect to bullies.” He added: “We do prefer rule of law to brutality.”
The French president also confirmed one possible response was using the Anti-Coercion Instrument or ACI.
The ACI could see the EU restrict U.S. suppliers’ access to the EU market, excluding them from participation in public tenders in the bloc, as well as putting export and import restrictions on goods and services and putting potential limits on foreign direct investment in the region.
