French President Emmanuel Macron has urged European companies to stop investing in the U.S. following President Donald Trump’s announcement of across-the-board tariffs on imports to America.
“Investments to come or investments announced in recent weeks should be suspended until things are clarified with the United States,” Macron said Thursday at a meeting with representatives from French industry, Reuters reported.
“What message would we send by having major European players investing billions of euros in the American economy at a time when [the U.S.] is hitting us?” he asked during the meeting at the Elysée palace with representatives of the sectors impacted by the tariffs, Politico noted.
Macron called for “collective solidarity” in response to the U.S. levies after Trump on Wednesday placed 20 percent tariffs on the EU on all exports to the U.S.
China in recent weeks has also restricted companies from investing in the U.S., following Trump’s earlier tariff announcements, Bloomberg reported. The country now faces a Trump levy of at least 54 percent on many goods. It invested $6.9 billion in the U.S. in 2023.
Macron’s comments regarding French investments follow by just weeks an announcement from French shipping company CMA CGM that it will invest $20 billion in the U.S. to construct shipping logistics systems and terminals.
At the time, Trump celebrated the announcement, and he even boasted about the investment again during his speech announcing the new tariffs Wednesday.
Late last month, Schneider Electric, the French electrical equipment supplier, announced that it would invest $700 million in the U.S. to back its energy infrastructure and to expand artificial intelligence projects.
Macron warned that no option is off the table to respond to Trump’s tariffs.
The French president indicated that the response to the new batch of tariffs would be “more powerful” than the response to previous tariffs on steel and aluminum.
Macron blasted the tariffs as “brutal and unfounded,” and said that it would mean a shock to international trade, adding that Europe would have to respond “industry by industry.”
The French president’s comments are viewed as an effort to convince French industry leaders not to attempt to make their own private deals with Trump, outside of EU trade policy.
The leader of the luxury goods company LVMH, Bernard Arnault, has said that he was thinking about boosting investments in the U.S. and praised Trump’s economic policies.
“I’ve just come back from the USA and I could see the wind of optimism reigning in that country. And when you come back to France, it’s a bit of a cold shower,” Arnault, Europe’s richest man, said in January.
Macron said Trump’s tariffs served as a confirmation that France had been correct to argue for a stricter trade policy and a more formidable defense.
“We need to continue to accelerate at the European level with an agenda of trade protection,” said Macron, pointing to EU levies on Chinese vehicles.
“We are not naïve, we are going to protect ourselves,” he added regarding the trade war with the U.S.