French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire warned yesterday that “if the United States hits us again with a 20 percent increase on cars we will respond again..” And he emphasized that “we don’t want an escalation, but we are the ones being attacked.”
Harley Davidsons plans to move production of motorcycles shipped to EU from US to other international facilities to avoid the tariffs. Regarding that news, Le Maire said “whatever allows jobs to be created in Europe goes in the right direction. We don’t want a trade war, but we will defend ourselves.”
France, Germany and the UK have requested for exemptions from sanctions on their companies for doing businesses with Iran. Le Maire said there was no positive signs from the US. And “for the moment, our requests remain unanswered”.