The French government is, according to sources that the newspaper Politico has spoken to, critical of how the EU Commission has handled the negotiations so far and is calling for tougher bids in the negotiations with the Trump administration in this matter
Paris thinks that the EU's negotiators must make it clear that we are ready to press the red button, says an anonymous French source who works with trade issues.
A colleague in the French government adds that the EU Commission must have it clear that we are dealing with an ally who triggers the tension in a trade war that it has started itself.
The EU has a finished package of countermeasures in the form of customs duties on US goods for over 20 billion euros. Work is also underway to develop a second major package of countermeasures with customs duties on US goods for 72 billion euros.
Other examples of countermeasures being debated are whether the EU should introduce customs duties on services from the US – where the US has a large surplus in trade with the rest of the world – or create trade barriers in the form of stopping American companies from participating in public procurement in the EU.
President Donald Trump has, by decree, already introduced 10 percent customs duties on all EU goods as well as 25 percent customs duties on cars and car parts and 50 percent customs duties on steel and aluminum – this without the EU having responded with any countermeasures.
