Powerful countries imposing tariffs is blackmail: Macron's veiled dig at Trump

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that tariffs levied by powerful countries were often a form of "blackmail" rather than instruments to rebalance trade.

His comments during a speech at the Conference on Financing for Development in Seville, Spain, came with the European Union negotiating a trade deal with the US ahead of a July 9 deadline, though he did not specifically refer to the US or US 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 rebalancing," Macron said.

He also urged support - and a rethinking - of the World Trade Organization to bring it in line with goals to fight inequality and climate change.

"Bringing back a trade war and tariffs at this moment in the life of the planet is an aberration, especially when I see the tariffs that are being imposed on countries that are just beginning their economic takeoff," Macron said.

Trump unveiled sweeping global tariffs in April in which he said countries would face taxes on imports into the US ranging from 10-50%, though he later reversed course and mostly lowered them for 90 days.

The UN trade agency had said the tariffs could have a catastrophic impact on developing countries, with some of the world's least developed, such as Lesotho, Cambodia, Laos, Madagascar and Myanmar, facing some of the highest levies.

Macron, a vocal critic of Washington's tariff campaign, has also said it is an aberration to ask Europeans to spend more on defence while launching a trade war.

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