Macron Urges Freeze on U.S. Investments Amid Trump’s Tariff Offensive

In a bold response to President Donald Trump’s latest move on international trade, French President Emmanuel Macron has called for a temporary halt to French investments in the United States.

Speaking on Thursday at a high-level meeting with French businesses and government officials — including Prime Minister François Bayrou — Macron sharply criticized Trump’s newly imposed tariffs, describing them as “brutal and unfounded,” with the potential to severely disrupt Europe’s economy.

Macron didn’t mince words. He urged French companies to suspend any newly announced investments in the U.S. until there’s more clarity on Washington’s trade stance.

“Future investments, investments announced in the last weeks, should be suspended for a time for as long as the situation with the United States is not clarified,” he stated.

At the heart of the dispute is Trump’s sweeping tariff hike — a 20% levy on European Union imports — part of a wider trade crackdown targeting multiple global partners. Macron warned that these tariffs could leave Americans “weaker and poorer,” and stressed the importance of a unified European reaction.

“Europe must respond together,” he emphasized, cautioning against unilateral action. Macron outlined a two-phase approach: a preliminary response set for mid-April focused on existing steel and aluminum tariffs, followed by a broader counteroffensive at the end of the month, after assessing the full impact and coordinating with EU member states.

Following the meeting, Patrick Martin, head of the influential French employers’ group MEDEF, echoed the gravity of the situation. “The world is reorganising. Trade relations are becoming extremely brutal, threats are accumulating,” he said, adding that it’s more crucial than ever for Europe and France to focus on competitiveness and streamlined regulations.

France Industrie, another major business federation, supported the idea of retaliatory measures. Alexandre Saubot, the group’s president, asserted that French manufacturers should consider suspending investment projects in the U.S. as a strategic move. “To negotiate from a position of strength, we have to be ready to use all the levers at our disposal,” he remarked.

Even France’s Overseas Minister, Manuel Valls, joined the chorus of criticism, calling the differentiated tariffs imposed on France’s overseas territories a “deeply political” maneuver — symptomatic, he said, of “an accumulation of inconsistencies, absurdities and incompetence” from the U.S. administration.

The fallout from Trump’s announcement was immediately felt on financial markets. Paris’ stock exchange tumbled over three percent — the sharpest single-day decline in two years — underscoring fears about escalating trade tensions and their ripple effects across the European economy.

Vincent Vicard, an economist at the Centre for Prospective Studies and International Information, pointed out that Trump’s actions “blow up the basic rules of international trade.” However, he believes the EU has enough tools at its disposal to mount a strong response.

Potential countermeasures include reducing imports of U.S. goods and services, limiting access to European markets, and even suspending intellectual property protections for certain American companies.

The economic stakes are massive. As of 2023, French direct investment in the United States stood at a staggering $370 billion, making France the fifth-largest foreign investor in the country, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA).

Meanwhile, U.S. investments in France were valued at $142 billion. The lion’s share of French investment is concentrated in manufacturing, a sector especially vulnerable to trade disruptions.

There are currently over 4,200 French company subsidiaries operating across the U.S., employing roughly 741,000 workers. With so much at risk, Macron’s call to action signals a growing willingness in Europe to push back decisively against Washington’s aggressive trade policies.

As the world watches this transatlantic standoff unfold, one thing is clear: Europe, and especially France, is not taking the Trump administration’s tariff blitz lying down. Whether this escalates into a full-blown trade war or leads to a recalibration of U.S.-EU relations remains to be seen. For now, French businesses are being urged to hold their ground — and their capital — until the dust settles.

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