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French President Emmanuel Macron said the European Union failed to exploit its large single market and scare the United States enough into accepting a better deal than the one it reached on Sunday.
“They should be afraid of us. They weren’t afraid of us enough,” Macron told ministers at the weekly cabinet meeting on Wednesday, said a French official, who, like others in this article, was granted anonymity as is often common practice.
Macron was notably silent in the days after US President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen signed the deal, which will see the EU pay 15 percent tariffs on most of its exports to the United States.
The French leader did not use as harsh a tone as his prime minister, who said the pact marked a "dark day" for Europe and even credited the agreement for bringing some short-term clarity to the situation.
Macron also praised European negotiators for defending French and European interests during "negotiations conducted in difficult conditions," given Trump's desire to implement some form of tariffs on US trading partners - and with them, radically transform the global economy.
But Macron said he believes there is still time to do better. "History is not over and we will not stop here," he said.
The deal has proven a lightning rod across the continent, especially given the 10% tariffs that Britain secured after Brexit on most of its exports across the Atlantic.
Although leaders like German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who was pushing for a quick deal to protect the country's export-oriented economy, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni have welcomed the agreement, France has led the chorus of its political opponents.
Trade Minister Laurent Saint-Martin and Europe Minister Benjamin Haddad on Monday urged the Commission to threaten to use the bloc's Anti-Rigging Instrument, a tool designed to respond to economic pressure by giving Brussels the authority to restrict companies' access to public procurement, foreign direct investment and financial markets in the EU.
Although France had publicly supported the Commission's negotiating tactics, French officials last week questioned the Commission's approach and called for von der Leyen's team to be more aggressive. At the same time, France continued to lobby behind the scenes to protect its wine and spirits sector from the trade war.
On the other hand, Brussels has accused its critics of playing it safe, arguing that this deal was the best they could get and represented a significant improvement over the 30 percent tariffs that the Trump administration had threatened. / Adapted from Politico Pamphlet/
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