Tariffs imposed by powerful countries a form of 'blackmail': France's Macron
His comments during a speech at the International Conference on Financing for Development in Seville, Spain, came with the EU negotiating a trade deal with the US before a July 9 deadline, though he did not specifically refer to the US or President Donald Trump.
'We need to restore freedom and equity to international trade, much more than barriers and tariffs, which are devised by the strongest and which are often used as instruments of blackmail, not at all as instruments of balancing,' Macron said.
He also urged support — and a rethink — of the World Trade Organisation to bring it in line with goals to fight inequality and climate change.
'Bringing back a trade war and tariffs now is an aberration, especially when I see the tariffs imposed on countries just beginning their economic take-off,' Macron said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Eyewitness News
an hour ago
- Eyewitness News
Mbappe and PSG set for Club World Cup reunion as Real Madrid eye final
EAST RUTHERFORD, UNITED STATES - Kylian Mbappe will come up against Paris Saint-Germain for the first time since leaving the French club a year ago as Xabi Alonso's Real Madrid revolution gets its biggest test yet in Wednesday's Club World Cup semi-final. Mbappe should be remembered as a PSG legend, having spent seven prolific campaigns there and eventually departing as their all-time top scorer with 256 goals in 308 games. But his legacy was a little tainted by the manner of his departure, the sense among many that for the last half of his time in Paris he was just waiting for the right moment to move to Madrid, the club he had dreamed of representing as a young boy. PSG, under their Qatari president Nasser al-Khelaifi, were not happy with the way in which Mbappe chose to run down his contract in order to sign for Real in 2024, denying them a transfer fee. A bitter legal dispute has gone on between the parties for much of the time since, with Mbappe claiming he is owed 55 million euros ($64.4 million) in unpaid wages and bonuses from his spell in Paris. READ: Real Madrid ready for 'really big challenge' against PSG at Club World Cup The latest twist came just this week, when one of Mbappe's lawyers told AFP that the France captain had withdrawn a complaint of moral harassment against his former employers. That was after the Paris prosecutor's office revealed last month that an investigation had been opened following a complaint by the player over the way he was treated by PSG in the summer of 2023. He believes he was sidelined by PSG and made to train with players the club were looking to offload after refusing to agree a new contract. Mbappe missed a pre-season tour to Japan and the start of the next campaign before eventually being reintegrated into Luis Enrique's squad. All of that should have been behind Mbappe long ago, given the way his first season at Real has gone on a personal level. The 26-year-old, a World Cup winner in 2018, scored 43 goals in 56 matches for his new club across all competitions up to the end of the campaign in La Liga, a remarkable tally. However, Mbappe has endured frustration at the Club World Cup, not featuring at all during the group stage due to a stomach bug which led to him requiring hospital treatment. - FIRST START? - In his absence, young forward Gonzalo Garcia has made the step up in impressive fashion, starting all five matches in the United States and scoring four goals. The last of those was the opener in the 3-2 quarter-final win over Borussia Dortmund at the MetLife Stadium on Saturday, but it was Mbappe who got what was ultimately the deciding goal. He came off the bench midway through the second half and scored a brilliant, acrobatic overhead kick for Real's third of the afternoon in stoppage time. "He is still not perfect, not 100 percent, but he is getting better every day," Alonso said of Mbappe after that match. 'Now he will have three days to keep progressing and feeling better ahead of the semi-final.' It is hard to imagine Mbappe not getting his first start of the tournament against PSG, the club who won the Champions League in the season following his departure after so many years of disappointment in Europe with him in the team. PSG came to the US fresh from crushing Inter Milan 5-0 in the Champions League final. They reached the last four with a 2-0 win over Bayern Munich in Atlanta in the last eight -- despite having Willian Pacho and Lucas Hernandez sent off -- and need not fear Real. "It doesn't matter who we play in the semi-finals. All that matters is that we are there and that we want to get to the final," said Luis Enrique, for whom this is also a special occasion given that he spent five years at Madrid as a player in the 1990s. Alonso has just taken over as Real coach after an outstanding spell with Bayer Leverkusen and has already displayed great tactical flexibility, flitting between a back four and a three-man central defence at the tournament. It will be fascinating to see which system he opts for here, and if Mbappe starts as he prepares to play against PSG for the first time since July 2017, when he was still a thrilling teenager at Monaco.
eNCA
12 hours ago
- eNCA
French court dismisses government Covid response probe
A French court on Monday dropped a case investigating the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic by three former government officials, including former prime minister and 2027 presidential hopeful Edouard Philippe. The Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) closed the probe five years after it began in July 2020 over complaints that the government mismanaged its reaction to the virus's spread, including a lack of protective gear and unclear guidance over mask wearing. Then premier Philippe, ex-health minister Agnes Buzyn and her successor Olivier Veran were named as assisted witnesses -- a status in the French legal system that falls between that of a witness and a formal suspect. "The investigating committee of the Court of Justice of the Republic has decided to dismiss the case," prosecutor general Remy Heitz said on Monday, without offering details. The public prosecutor in May requested the case be dismissed -- a move that effectively ruled out a trial. The CJR is the only court authorised to prosecute and try former and current government members for alleged crimes and offences committed in exercising their official duties. Its investigation found the government had taken several measures to combat the pandemic, Heitz said in May. The prosecutor's request -- seen by AFP -- argued that while the measures taken to combat the spread of Covid-19 were insufficient, neither Philippe nor Veran deliberately refused to respond to the disaster. "Each, at their own level, fought the epidemic from the moment it emerged in France," the request said. Buzyn had been sharply criticised for leaving her post at the start of the health crisis to run for mayor of Paris. But she actually left on February 16, 2020 -- a few days before an official disaster was declared in France with the first death of a Covid-19 patient recorded on February 25, the prosecutor general's office added. Buzyn had also been under investigation for endangering the lives of others, but France's Court of Cassation dropped that charge in January 2023. Philippe, a popular premier from 2017 to July 2020, is now mayor of the northern city of Le Havre and leads a right-centre party allied with, but not part of, Macron's centrist faction. He is the only leading contender to firmly have declared his intention to stand in the 2027 presidential election. According to France's public health agency, around 168,000 people died from Covid-19 between February 2020 and September 2023, when the World Health Organization declared the global health emergency over.
eNCA
14 hours ago
- eNCA
Poland starts border checks with Germany in anti-migrant clampdown
Poland reimposed checks on its borders with EU neighbours Germany and Lithuania on Monday in a bid to crack down on irregular migration amid surging anti-immigrant sentiment creating political pressure in Berlin and Warsaw. Border guards and military police could be seen looking into passing cars and occasionally stopping vehicles for document checks on the bridge connecting the Polish town of Slubice with Frankfurt an der Oder in Germany. The new checks are a response to growing anti-migrant sentiment on both sides of the border. Poland says hundreds of migrants, mostly from the Middle East, cross into the Baltic states from Belarus every month, then travel through Poland into Germany. The issue has become a particularly sensitive one in Polish domestic politics and has led to tensions with Germany. AFP | Wojtek RADWANSKI Warsaw has accused Berlin of sending the irregular migrants it manages to intercept back into Poland. "The checks being implemented aim to combat illegal migration," Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak was quoted as saying by his ministry on X. Shortly after the new checks came into force on Monday, Polish border guards detained a man for assisting irregular migration. The Estonian national is accused of transporting four irregular migrants, believed to be from Afghanistan. Siemoniak said the detention was "proof that these checks are necessary". - 'Ping-pong game' - Germany, which introduced checks on the border with Poland in 2023, has welcomed the Polish initiative and called for collaboration against a common problem. Speaking to the daily Rheinische Post, the head of German police union GdP, Andreas Rosskopf, said the two countries needed a "workable procedure". He warned against Polish and German border guards engaging in a "ping-pong game" with asylum seekers by sending them back and forth. AFP | Wojtek RADWANSKI Representatives of German business associations have also voiced concern. "We are receiving worrying feedback from the business community," Helena Melnikov, chief executive of the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DIHK), told the Handelsblatt newspaper. "If commuters can no longer get to work reliably and on time at the German-Polish border, there is an increased risk that they will look for work elsewhere on a permanent basis –- with consequences for the shortage of skilled workers in border regions," she said. Marek Klodnicki, an administrative employee who lives in Slubice but works in Germany, said the re-introduction of border controls was "very sad". "We have waited so long for open borders," he said, adding that the checks would result in "a disruption in social and economic life". Business owners, particularly hairdressers and tobacco shops, which get a lot of custom from Germans crossing the border, also voiced concern the checks could disrupt business. "Ninety percent of our customers are Germans. We may have less traffic, less revenue," Kinga Dziuba, a 29-year-old cigarette vendor, told AFP. But Dziuba said the checks were "very much needed" to control migration, adding: "Security is more important to me than trade". The issue of migration was central to June's presidential election in Poland, where nationalist Karol Nawrocki -- who ran on a slogan of "Poland first, Poles first" -- narrowly defeated the candidate backed by pro-European Union Prime Minister Donald Tusk. The Tusk government is now seeking to outflank its rivals by taking a tougher approach to immigration. - Checks 'unnecessary' - In total, 52 checkpoints have been set up on the border with Germany and 13 with Lithuania, Siemoniak said. The controls will last from July 7 to August 5 but could be extended. They will mostly consist of spot inspections, particularly of vehicles carrying several people, officials said. AFP | Damien SIMONART In June, members of a far-right movement gathered at several points along the border to set up "citizens' patrols", which the government insists are illegal. In Slubice, Edyta Taryma, a 54-year-old hair salon owner, said her revenues had already dropped by 20 percent after Germany re-imposed border controls. "A great many people did not come, or came less often, because they were afraid of traffic jams," she said. She called the checks "unnecessary". By Stanislaw Naklicki
