The French finance minister, Eric Lombard, said on Saturday that the European Union (EU) could respond to the tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump by regulating the use of data by American big tech groups, among other measures.
In an interview with French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche, Lombard pointed out that the EU had several tools at its disposal.
“We have several tools at our disposal at the European level: regulatory, fiscal, and customs. For example, we can strengthen certain environmental requirements or regulate the use of data by certain digital players,” he said in the interview.
According to Lombard, EU rules also allow for taxes on certain American activities, with all the options remaining open and under discussion. He didn’t give any details on how data usage by big tech groups could be strengthened. Data collection and processing are already regulated by EU rules like the General Data Protection Rules (GDPR).
The European response to US tariffs should “inevitably” have “consequences” for both the continent’s and US companies. It is not a question of taxing all American imports, that would be counterproductive, penalizing our economy as much as theirs. So we are going to target certain industrial segments, in a precise manner,” he told the newspaper.
Donald Trump’s tariff measures on EU
US President Donald Trump announced last Wednesday broad tariffs on imports into the US from several countries in the world, including the EU. He called the announcement ‘Liberation Day’, which, according to him, would ‘make America rich again’.
Specifically, imports from the European Union would attract 20 percent duties in the United States. It is worth noting that the bloc is the US’s largest trading partner.
The EU has vowed to retaliate with countermeasures if needed, including with its own tariffs, taxing services, and targeting American tech firms.
French finance minister Eric Lombard stressed that he still sees a possibility for tariffs to be lifted through negotiations. On the other hand, Elon Musk has said that he wishes to see the US and Europe go into a ‘zero tariff situation’ and become a ‘free trade zone’ in the future. Musk, who owns social media platform X, is one of the biggest backers and an advisor of Trump.
