France says EU has tools to hit back at Washington over import levies

PARIS/BERLIN — The European Union has the tools to hit back at the United States for its latest round of tariffs, France's trade minister Nicolas Forissier told the Financial Times on Saturday.

Paris was in talks with EU counterparts and the European Commission over the US administration's decision to impose a flat global tariff of 10 percent after the US Supreme Court ruled that many of the existing tariffs it had levied on trading partners were illegal, Forissier said.

"Should it become necessary, the EU has the appropriate instruments at its disposal," he told the FT.

On Saturday, the US administration said it was raising the rate to 15 percent.

The EU response could include options such as the "trade bazooka" — an anti-coercion instrument that could affect US technology companies — the FT said, citing French officials.

The instrument has a broad range of powers from export controls to tariffs on services, as well as the exclusion of US companies from EU procurement contracts, the newspaper said.

There is also a suspended package of retaliatory tariffs on more than 90 billion euros ($106 billion) of US goods that could be deployed, the report added.

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Saturday that he would hold talks with European allies on a joint response to US tariffs, ahead of a visit to Washington.

"We will have a very clear European position on this, because customs policy is a matter for the European Union, not for individual member states," Merz told the ARD broadcaster.

"I will be in Washington in just over a week," he added. "And I will go to Washington with a common European position."

While noting the US' additional 10 percent tariff, Merz said he nevertheless expected German exporters to face fewer duties in the future and saw good news in the Supreme Court's ruling.

"For me, there is a reassuring element in yesterday's Supreme Court decision: the separation of powers in the USA still seems to be working," he said. "That is good news."

The US Supreme Court's Friday ruling has prompted widespread international reactions.

Croatian economist Ljubo Jurcic described the ruling as a major setback for what he called a flawed economic model, arguing that the tariffs had primarily harmed the US economy.

Portuguese commentator Rui Cardoso said the EU adopted an unnecessarily weak stance against the US administration. Recent developments showed the EU did not need to concede as much as it did, he said.