Macron pushes back at Trump, says EU will decide independently on China tariffs
Photo: French President Emmanuel Macron (Vitalii Nosach, RBC-Ukraine)
French President Emmanuel Macron, in an interview with CBS News, said that the European Union will conduct its own diplomacy toward China and will decide independently whether to impose additional tariffs and duties.
Commenting on US President Donald Trump's calls to impose new tariffs on China to increase pressure on Beijing, Macron said, "We will have our own diplomacy on China."
He added that the EU follows a risk-reduction strategy in its relations with China rather than full disengagement, and that the focus should now be on other sanction-related issues.
"Let's focus on some secondary sanctions, if they make sense. I think what we have to do is to engage a serious dialogue in order to see where and in which capacity Russia is helped by third countries, and to increase the pressure," Macron said.
At the same time, he noted that the sanctions approach is fundamentally correct, but it must be targeted and directly linked to Russia.
"So I think this approach is a good one, but it should be targeted and directly related to Russia," Macron added.
Trump's ultimatum to Europe
Trump has repeatedly said that Europe must put strong pressure on China. Recently, he again stated that Europe needs to "do something" about China to help accelerate the end of Russia's war against Ukraine.
The United States has also launched a campaign to pressure the European Union, urging that the new sanctions package include restrictions and duties on Beijing and New Delhi. However, the EU is willing at most to add some refineries and banks to its "blacklist" and does not plan to impose any sanctions.
