French President Emmanuel Macron has condemned the increase in tariffs between NATO members at a time when the alliance has agreed to increase defense spending.
“These efforts oblige us to maintain trade peace. We cannot, as allies, talk about the need to increase defense spending and wage a trade war. This is nonsense“, the French leader told reporters after the NATO summit. He demanded “reduction of all tariffs that are currently in force or have recently been increased“.
US President Donald Trump initially said that due to the complexity of trade negotiations with the EU, he planned to introduce 50% tariffs on imports from the community from June 1. At the same time, he recalled that European companies would not have to pay any tariffs if they produced their products in the US. According to the president, one of the main goals of the creation of the EU was to gain an advantage over the US in trade. However, on May 26, Trump announced that he had agreed to postpone the introduction of 50% trade tariffs on imports from EU countries from June 1 to July 9.