Texte intégral
In this context, very troubled, because of the very aggressive and arbitrary trade policy from Donald Trump and the United States. In this context, the French position has been very clear. We are against any trade war, any trade war, neither with the United States nor with any other country and we do always prefer cooperation to confrontation and this would be very clear because our end goal remains the same, is to negotiate this escalation and negotiate back to where things were and if it's not possible, of course the European Union must react, must react firmly and must react proportionally this is what we're going to talk about in the transatlantic relation but we need one condition to be credible and to show that Europe can be a genuine strength is to remain united, that the European members remain united in this period. It's a very tough moment, very important period for the European unity and for the strength it is and it has to showcase the world and about the second topic very important we have to discuss today it's about relationship between EU and China. About that transposition of course is always very clear we need to rebalance trade relations between EU and China in line with our industrial, economic security and low-carbon agendas and at the same time we need to push our very assertive trade policy with them, especially fighting against overcapacity, especially during this very specific trade war time. So this is what we're going to talk about, but I have to say that it is very good news that Maros Sefcovic, Jean-Noël Barrot had great diplomatic exchanges these last days with Chinese authorities because we need to talk with them at the very specific moment.
Q - How can you say it's not a trade war when Donald Trump launches tariffs two days after the visit of the commissioner ? You're saying we have to avoid it ?
R - Yes, we have to. What we have to do is to negotiate back where things were. This is our end goal Because it's good for our own GDP growth, for our own jobs and for American ones. So this is our end goal. I would never say that we have to push an agenda of escalating the situation.
Q - Do you see China becoming a more significant economic partner with the European Union in view of what's happening with global trade right now ? And then the second question is, we talked about [inaudible], we talked about how flawed the calculations are for the tariffs that are coming from the White House but in reality, what is Donald Trump's [inaudible] when the rest of the world is saying that this is not good ? What do you believe ?
R - For the second question, I think it's not for me I think it's for him but for the first one, yes but we have an agenda with China. We have an open business agenda but what I'm saying is that we have to fight against overcapacities. And we have to protect Europe, of course, from overcapacities at the very moment of a trade war that can have, of course, consequences that can be very complicated for Europe. So this must be a discussion very important today.
Q - What do you think of the proposal of zero tariffs ? US was bringing this up over the weekend, you said you want to negotiate back to where we are but do you want to go further ?
Q - Les contre-mesures que la Commission propose en termes de contenu et de calendrier, celles qui arriveront dans les prochaines semaines, est-ce qu'elles vous conviennent ?
R - Je pense qu'il faut tout mettre sur la table et ne rien exclure. Le calendrier, vous l'avez compris, se fait en deux temps. D'abord sur la réponse suite au prix sur l'acier et l'aluminium, qui est en fait prévue pour une dizaine de jours, et nous avons jusqu'à la fin du mois pour proposer une réponse complète et une réponse de deuxième niveau à ces tarifs dits réciproques. Et donc, là-dessus, je pense qu'il ne faut exclure aucune option sur les biens, sur les services, quelle que soit la façon de l'aborder, et ouvrir la boîte à outils européenne, qui est très complète et qui peut aussi être extrêmement, extrêmement agressive en retour. Je pense bien sûr à l'instrument anti-coercition.
Q - Pouvez-vous nous expliquer ce que la France amène aujourd'hui à la table ? Quelle est l'idée de la France et qu'apportez-vous aujourd'hui ?
R - La position de la France, encore une fois, c'est d'abord de tout faire, de faire préférer la coopération, la négociation à l'escalade et à la confrontation. Là-dessus, il faut que les choses soient très claires, personne n'a à gagner, à continuer sur cette voie-là. Évidemment pas les États-Unis eux-mêmes, mais l'Europe non plus, et les autres zones du monde non plus. Si, pour parvenir à cela, il faut montrer ce dont on est capable en termes de riposte, alors l'Europe doit savoir le faire. C'est ça la position de la France, avec toutes les options sur la table, sans oublier, ce que je disais tout à l'heure, sans oublier de savoir protéger notre propre continent, des conséquences des détournements des routes commerciales qui pourraient avoir lieu suite à cette guerre commerciale, je pense, bien sûr, aux surcapacités asiatiques, notamment chinoises.
Source https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr, le 9 avril 2025