PARIS (Reuters) – France still hopes Europe will avoid a trade war with the United States but it would reply with reciprocal measures if tariffs announced by U.S. President Donald Trump went ahead on Wednesday, said commerce and trade minister Laurent Saint-Martin.
“Europe will never be united and strong if it allows itself to be pushed around in a trade war it didn’t want. However, it must always bring a positive agenda to the table,” he said in an interview on RTL radio on Monday.
Saint-Martin also said France is planning talks with the U.S. Embassy in Paris to voice opposition against Trump’s order to French companies to comply with its diversity ban.
(Reporting by Gianluca Lo Nostro; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)
