American customs duties worry several French sectors

While threats concerning American customs duties are becoming clearer, some sectors are starting to fear heavy economic consequences.

European products will soon be taxed at 25 %, said Donald Trump on Wednesday, February 26. The American president also violently attacked Europeans, on the occasion of the first meeting of his cabinet to the White House, in a style of his own: “The European Union has been designed to piss off the United States”he launched. Donald Trump would therefore apply the same rules to the EU as in Canada and Mexico.

If the American president did not specify what the targeted products will be, this new announcement by Donald Trump worries many French sectors which export across the Atlantic. This declaration initially left Ugur Yagiz, secretary general of the steel branch of the CFE-CGC union. “It is not very clear because there are still a lot of products that are already taxed. Is it those that he still has to surcharge?”, he wonders.

The unionist still already evokes the idea of ​​future social plans in France. “There are only the big ones who will be able to resist and all the small structures of the steel industry will, in my opinion, be in great difficulties.” A situation that the National AOC Confederation has already known. Jérôme Bauer remembers Donald Trump’s first term.

“We had quantified 500 million euros in the loss of market loss when Donald Trump had put these taxes a few years ago.”

I Mérän Bauer

in franceinfo

But this time, the situation would be even more difficult, explains the Alsatian winemaker. “We are already a sector that has a knee on the ground with a succession of crises, climatic, geopolitical … We have companies are the American market is the first market, so yes, it can actually weaken many viticulture companies, whether small or large”He said then that last year, the American market was the first market in value for French wines.

It is also the timing of this surprise announcement, only a few days after Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Washington. “I hope I convinced him”Launched Emmanuel Macron after his meeting with Donald Trump, but Nicolas Ozanam, general delegate of the Federation of Wine Exporters and Spirits, did not expect much from their exchange. “The central subject was the situation in Ukraine, we are not completely surprised that this subject was not absolutely at the heart of their exchanges”he explains.

Jérôme Bauer also believes that the French president must not act alone and that Europe must block. “No one would benefit from entering a trade war. You really have to make it understand that to Donald Trump, we also import American products in Europe. You have to be firm”he asserts. In a statement, the European Union has already replied that it will answer “immediately” to future customs duties of Americans.