In an interview on Sunday published by Los Echos, French President Emmanuel Macron hinted at a US-style trade war on China.

He said he spoke with Chinese officials and warned them what’s coming.

“I told them that if they do not react, we Europeans would be forced, in
the coming months, to take strong measures following the example of the
United States, such as imposing tariffs on Chinese products,” he said.

The ‘coming months’ part is particularly notable, though it’s unclear what strings the EU could pull.

“I tried to explain to the Chinese that their trade surplus is
unsustainable because they are killing their own customers, particularly
by no longer importing much from us,” Macron said.

I’ve written about this before but the US might not have been just a gamechanger for US-global relations but with how the rest of the world interacts with each other. We may frequently see larger countries try to squeeze smaller trading partners, or — in this case — trading giants collide.

The EU’s goods trade deficit with China has ballooned by nearly 60% since 2019 and China is coming after the European auto market.

The thing is, Europe immediately rolled over on US tariffs so it’s not exactly projecting a backbone. The fragmentation of the eurozone also makes it extremely difficult to project a united front.