• Macron calls Trump’s 25% car-and-steel threat “economic lunacy” at Paris presser
• French president warns U.S. bourbon, Harleys and Google will face EU retaliation
• Élysée says Macron personally phoned Trump to warn of “uncontrollable spiral”

PARIS, FRANCE (TDR) — President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday unleashed his sharpest attack yet on Donald Trump’s trade policy, branding the American leader’s proposed 25% tariffs on EU cars and steel “economic lunacy” and vowing that France will champion “immediate and painful” EU counter-measures against iconic U.S. exports from Kentucky bourbon to Google cloud services.

Speaking after a Bastille Day military parade on the Champs-Élysées, Macron said he had personally phoned Trump earlier in the week to warn him that Europe would not negotiate “with a gun to the head,” and that any U.S. duties would trigger “a spiral that no one can control.”

“When you tax our champagne, we will tax your bourbon. When you threaten our cars, we will threaten your Harley-Davidsons and your Silicon Valley cloud giants,” Macron declared. “This is not a trade skirmish; it is an attack on European sovereignty.”

From Phone Call to Public Fury

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Élysée Palace sources told TDR the 45-minute call on Monday ended acrimoniously after Trump replied that “EU cars are a national-security threat” and that “France should thank America for liberating Paris.” Macron, according to aides, shot back: “Liberation does not give you the right to occupy our markets 80 years later.”

Within 24 hours, the White House formally initiated a Section 232 investigation into EU automotive imports, setting the stage for 25% duties as early as October. The move targets 1.1 million European vehicles worth $42 billion last year—Germany alone exports 640,000 cars to the U.S. annually.

Macron’s Retaliation Road-Map

Macron revealed France will table a 28-product retaliation list at next week’s EU Trade Ministers meeting:

Macron added that France will push for a “Buy European” clause in public procurement, effectively locking U.S. cloud giants Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure out of tenders worth €14 billion a year.

Champagne vs. Bourbon

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France exports 210 million bottles of champagne to the U.S. each year; a 25% U.S. tariff would add roughly $7 to a standard bottle. Macron warned that if Washington taxes champagne, the EU will double its 2018 retaliatory duty on bourbon to 50%, effectively pricing Kentucky whiskey off European shelves.

“You want to hurt our wine? We will hurt your whiskey twice as hard,” the president said, flanked by champagne producers in Reims uniforms.

The Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S. (DISCUS) responded that EU bourbon duties already cost 3,500 Kentucky jobs and that a 50% levy would “devastate” the state’s economy.

Farmers & Industrial Lobby Split

While French farmers welcome retaliation, the country’s auto sector is nervous. Renault exports 180,000 vehicles to the U.S. annually; a 25% American tariff would add roughly $6,000 to the sticker price of a Megane hatchback.

Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told BFM Business that France will create a €2 billion fund to compensate exporters hit by U.S. duties, funded largely by proceeds from the new digital levy on American tech firms.

“We will protect our companies, but we will not cave to tariff blackmail,” Le Maire said.

Digital-Tax Escalation

Beyond tariffs, Macron vowed to accelerate the EU’s long-delayed digital-services tax, targeting U.S. platforms with global revenue above €750 million. The levy, set at 6% of EU advertising and cloud revenue, would hit Google, Amazon, Meta and Apple to the tune of €5.4 billion a year.

The U.S. Trade Representative’s office warned last month that any EU digital tax would be met with 100% retaliatory tariffs on French wine, cheese and handbags.

EU Unity Test

Macron’s tough stance must now win over more export-dependent EU partners. Germany, the EU’s largest exporter to the U.S., fears a tit-for-tat spiral could cripple its auto sector. Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged “calibrated, not emotional” responses, while Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called for a 90-day cooling-off period.

Yet Macron appears to have the upper hand. A fresh Eurobarometer poll shows 68% of EU citizens support “firm retaliation” against U.S. trade measures, and the European Parliament’s trade committee is expected to endorse Macron’s hard-line package next week.

WTO & Legal Pathways

Brussels will file a formal WTO complaint only after the U.S. imposes duties, because the current investigation is internal. Yet EU lawyers are already preparing a “mirror retaliation” brief, arguing that Section 232 national-security claims are an abuse of WTO rules.

Legal scholars say the EU’s case is strong: the U.S. has never proven that EU cars or steel pose a security threat, and the WTO Appellate Body—though crippled—could still authorize counter-measures.

Economic Impact

ECB modelling suggests a full-blown EU-US trade war could shave 0.4 percentage points off euro-area GDP in 2027, while U.S. real incomes would fall 0.2%. Global trade volume could contract by 1.1%, equivalent to $280 billion.

Currency markets reacted instantly: the euro dropped 0.9% to $1.01, while the dollar index hit a six-month high on safe-haven flows.

Off-Ramp Scenarios

Diplomats say the most likely face-saving exit is a sectoral zero-for-zero deal on industrial steel and aluminum, coupled with a tariff-rate quota on EU autos (e.g., 1 million vehicles at 10%, remainder at 25%).

But with U.S. election season intensifying and Macron facing domestic pressure to stand firm, compromise may have to wait until 2027.

Macron’s Message to Washington

Closing his Paris press conference, Macron looked straight into the cameras and addressed Trump personally:

“You want to make America great again? Don’t start trade wars you can’t win. Europe will not be your punching bag. We are 450 million strong, and we punch back.”

The Élysée later confirmed Macron has no plans to attend the upcoming G-20 trade ministers’ meeting in São Paulo, sending instead Le Maire — a signal that high-level channels are frozen for now.

Will Macron’s hard-ball stance force Trump to blink, or has Paris just fired the opening shot in a trans-Atlantic trade war that could last years?

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