European and U.S. trade officials were scheduled to meet in Paris on Tuesday as the two sides confronted a fresh tariff crisis. President Trump’s announcement on Friday that he would lift duties on European cars and trucks to 25% this week plunged the transatlantic economic relationship back into tensions that had appeared to ease with last summer’s trade deal.
Speaking from the EU-Armenia summit in Yerevan, French President Emmanuel Macron urged Washington to de-escalate. “Especially in the geopolitical period we are experiencing, allies like the United States of America and the European Union have much better things to do than to stir up threats of destabilization,” Macron said. He added that “for our businesses, our households, our populations, we should rather send a message of stability and confidence,” and expressed hope that “reason will prevail soon.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who negotiated the July 2025 agreement that set a tariff ceiling of 15% on most goods, was blunt. “A deal is a deal, and we have a deal. And the essence of this deal is prosperity, common rules and reliability,” she told reporters. The U.S. Supreme Court this year ruled against the legal authority Trump had used to impose those duties, but the White House has not said whether that ruling would affect the new threat. Von der Leyen said the EU, which negotiates trade on behalf of its 27 member countries, is “prepared for every scenario.”
The flare-up comes after Trump publicly criticized German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who had said the U.S. was “humiliated by Iran” in ongoing talks aimed at ending the war in the Middle East. Germany is a leading auto exporter, and higher U.S. tariffs would hit its industry particularly hard. In response, Trump has also threatened to withdraw thousands of U.S. troops stationed in Germany.
Macron insisted that agreements between the allies must be respected. “If they were challenged again, it would reopen everything,” he said, warning that “the European Union has instruments that would then need to be activated” — a reference to potential retaliatory measures.