Emmanuel Macron today called on Europe to ‘mobilise’ leverage to protect itself against Donald Trump‘s ‘unfair’ tariffs – with futures still uncertain pending a 90-day ‘pause’.
‘We must show ourselves as strong,’ Macron wrote on X, with leaders still contemplating responses to Trump’s radical tariff regime – and abrupt climbdown on Wednesday.
‘Europe must continue to work on all the necessary counter-measures,’ he said, assessing the ‘fragile’ pause as ’90 days of uncertainty for all our businesses, on both sides of the Atlantic and beyond’.
‘We are right to fight: jobs and the lives of our countries are at stake.’
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen yesterday welcomed Trump’s decision to reduce the EU’s duties to a 10 per cent baseline tariff.
She insisted the bloc was ‘committed to constructive negotiations with the United States’, announcing a 90-day pause on retaliatory tariffs in kind.
The EU was hit with a 20 per cent rate as part of Trump’s universal tariffs and the commission has been preparing its response, although made it clear it would prefer to avoid retaliation.
Trump said that the European Union was ‘very smart’ to refrain from counter tariffs even as the bloc’s chief warned it could tax US Big Tech firms.
‘(The EU) were ready to announce retaliation. And then they heard about what we did with respect to China’,’ Trump said.
Emmanuel Macron, pictured on April 8 in Egypt, warned Europe of the ‘fragile’ pause on tariffs after Donald Trump reduced the EU’s levies to a baseline 10 per cent
Donald Trump speaks to the media during a cabinet meeting in Washington on Thursday
Trump acknowledged ‘a transition cost and transition problems,’ but dismissed global market turmoil. ‘In the end it’s going to be a beautiful thing.’
Investors, broadly speaking, have not shared in the president’s faith.
On Wall Street, the broad-based S&P 500 finished down 3.5 percent on Thursday after soaring 9.5 percent the day before. The Dow Jones shed 2.5 percent and the Nasdaq 4.3 percent.
On Friday in Asia, Tokyo sank more than four percent – a day after surging more than nine percent – while Sydney, Seoul, Singapore and others were also in the red.
The Hang Seng in Hong Kong is still around 0.5 per cent higher. Taiwan’s Taiex index was up 1.6 per cent.
Britain performed slightly better. Trading in the UK restarted on Friday with the FTSE 100 – an index of the country’s biggest companies – nearly 1 per cent up.
The boost compounded a 3 per cent rise on Thursday.
Oil and the dollar, however, slid on fears of a global slowdown while gold hit a new record above $3,200, as investors spooked by Trump’s erratic policies dumped normally rock-solid US Treasuries.
‘The sugar high from Trump’s tariff pause is fading fast,’ said Stephen Innes at SPI Asset Management.
‘Bottom line: the world’s two largest economies are in a full-blown trade war – and there are no winners.’
Chinese President Xi Jinping, right and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez speak as they walk along the gardens of Diaoyutai Guest House after a meeting in Beijing, China, April 11
A pedestrian walks past an electronic board showing the morning numbers on the Tokyo Stock Exchange along a street in Tokyo on April 11
Gold rose to a record high as investors, spooked by uncertainty, looked for safe assets.
An ounce climbed to $3,205.21 (£2,465.66) even as the trade war with Europe edged towards a détente.
‘The massive flight to safety… all reflects the lack of clarity in financial markets today,’ Olivier d’Assier, from investment management solutions firm SimCorp, told the BBC.
In Trump’s eastern theatre, the tariffs on most Chinese goods were raised to 145 per cent, the White House said.
The administration had announced a new levy of 125 per cent on Wednesday – but the White House clarified this was actually on top of an existing 20 per cent.
After lowering most tariffs to a baseline 10 per cent, Trump said the disparity was due to China showing a ‘lack of respect’ to the world’s markets.
China erupted with a furious response, raising its own tariffs on the U.S. to 84%, which took effect on Thursday.
He Yongqian, spokesperson for the commerce ministry, told reporters today that pressure, threats and blackmail were not the right approach to dealing with China.
A viral TikTok meme using AI-generated ‘Americans’ mocked the US government’s desire to bring manufacturing jobs back to American soil
Another AI-generated clip shared by CGTN criticised tariffs from the perspective of Americans
She lamented the ‘imposition of indiscriminate tariffs’ on trading partners including China which, she echoed, ‘seriously infringe upon the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies and severely impact the stability of the global economic order.’
‘The door to dialogue is open, but it must be based on mutual respect and conducted in an equal manner.’
Trump announced a raft of punishing tariffs last week, throwing global markets into chaos, before announcing on Wednesday that he was halting the measures for almost all economies for 90 days.
The 27-nation EU is among dozens of economies including Japan – but not China – that now face a baseline tariff rate of 10% instead.
Macron said the EU had to avoid product ‘flows from third countries’, which could ‘unbalance our market’.
Macron said the European Commission’s objective was ‘simple: to negotiate to remove these unfair tariffs and obtain a balanced agreement, without asymmetries,’ as this three-month pause represents ’90 days of uncertainty for all our businesses, on both sides of the Atlantic and beyond.’
Despite market turmoil, there was welcome news of a surprising boost to the UK economy in February, with the ONS reporting 0.5 per cent growth – ahead of the 0.1% estimate.
