While the European Union green-lighted the start of trade negotiations with the US, France voted against these talks. The demarche, which happened to be purely symbolic, comes amid a new trade row between the EU and US as President Trump has threatened $11 billion in tariffs due to the bloc’s subsidies for Airbus.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron has opposed starting trade talks with the US, who withdrew from the Paris Agreement on climate change under the Trump administration. Like his counterpart across the Atlantic, Macron took to Twitter to show his resentment.
“We defend exemplary Europe for the climate policy. France opposes launching trade negotiations with the US that is not a member of the Paris Agreement”, he tweeted.
He noted that France is not alone in this fight, but insisted that Paris “must make its voice heard in the moment of truth” when the “long-term European project is at stake”. He also voiced France’s commitment to the cause, including concrete proposals like pesticide reduction, carbon neutrality by 2050, and food security.
His statements were backed by French Minister of Ecologic Transition François de Rugy who said on Twitter that Paris had voted against approving negotiations between the EU and the US and pointed at the country’s strong environmental requirements in trade agreements.