FRANCE’S industry minister called yesterday for a proportionate but firm response to US tariffs and said Europe wanted to avoid a damaging trade escalation, with the door open to negotiation.
Speaking to reporters at an Airbus factory in Toulouse, Industry Minister Marc Ferracci said sweeping tariffs introduced by US President Donald Trump were without precedent since the 1930s and could destabilise the global economy and cost jobs.
“The response must first of all be a united European one,” Ferracci said.
“We obviously expect a response which must be proportionate because neither France nor Europe want an escalation in trade: a trade war can only have losers and it is absolutely certain that it will hit the American economy.”
He was speaking as a global stock market rout showed no sign of slowing after Trump on Wednesday imposed widespread tariffs on US imports including 20 per cent on the European Union where most Airbus jetliner factories are based.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Thursday described Trump’s tariffs as a major blow to the world economy and said the EU was prepared to respond with countermeasures if talks with Washington failed.
“We are in a posture of negotiation,” Ferracci told reporters. “We will have to negotiate but negotiation also implies firmness.”
Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury, when asked how the European planemaker would respond to the US tariffs, said Airbus was still analysing how to react to the situation.
Airbus has most of its factories in Europe including the former A380 plant where it now assembles smaller planes including one visited by ministers yesterday.
Elsewhere in the factory, airplanes were being assembled for US majors United and Delta, highlighting the stakes involved for carriers in any widening tariff dispute.
Airbus also assembles some of its planes in Mobile, Alabama, where it is in the midst of a long-planned capacity expansion.
Ferracci reiterated an appeal by French President Emmanuel Macron for major French companies to pause new investments in the United States until the trade situation became clearer.
Airbus said it had taken note of Macron’s comments and was assessing their impact.
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