‘We prefer respect to bullies’: Macron hits back at Trump tariff threat
French president Emmanuel Macron has hit back at “bullies” after US president Donald Trump threatened to put 200% tariffs on French wine.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday, Macron said, France and Europe will not “passively accept the law of the strongest.” Doing otherwise, he added, would lead to their “vassalization.”
He said that instead, Europe will continue to stand up for territorial sovereignty and the rule of law, despite what he called a shift towards a world without rules. That could include the EU responding with its own steep trade sanctions.
Washington announced that eight European countries could face a 10% tariff on exports to the US from 1 February unless they support a US proposal to take over Greenland, which is a semi-autonomous Danish territory. The tariff would rise to 25% in June if no agreement is reached.
The countries named include Denmark, France, Germany, the UK, Sweden, Norway, Finland and the Netherlands.
‘We do prefer rule of law to brutality’
Macron said: “We need more growth. We need more stability in this world, but we do prefer respect to bullies.” He added: “We do prefer rule of law to brutality”.
On Monday, Trump also threatened to impose tariffs of up to 200% on French wine and Champagne on Monday after the French president snubbed an invitation to join his ‘Board of Peace’ initiative.
The board was originally designed to oversee the rebuilding of Gaza, but it appears to now be a broader platform for dealing with global conflicts.
At the forum, Macron also called for the “dismantling” of tariffs. He said: “It doesn’t make sense to have tariffs and be divided, and even to be threatened now with additional tariffs.”
Call for ‘more cooperation’ among European nations
He called Trump’s levies an “endless accumulation of new tariffs that are fundamentally unacceptable, even more so when they are used as a leverage against territorial sovereignty.”
Macron urged for “more cooperation” among European nations. “Without collective governance, cooperation gives way to relentless competition,” he said.
The US is the largest export market for French wine and spirits, with shipments worth €3.8bn in 2024.
Wine and spirits exported from the European Union to the United States currently face a 15% tariff. French producers have been lobbying for this to be reduced to zero since Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen agreed a US-EU trade deal last summer.
Tariff troubles
Additionally, Trump announced on 13 January that any country trading with Iran will face a 25% tariff on all business conducted with the United States, according to a post on Truth Social, amid a violent crackdown on anti-government protests in Iran, with thousands feared dead.
The measure is described as effective immediately and final; however, the White House has offered no clarity on how such a tariff would be enforced or which partners would be caught in its net.
The drinks industry is well aware of the impact tariffs can have. In August 2025, a group of 57 alcohol producers, hospitality bodies and suppliers warned that a proposed 15% US tariff on EU goods could wipe almost $2bn off American alcohol sales and put around 25,000 jobs at risk.
The letter, backed by major producers including Diageo and Pernod Ricard, said higher duties would feed through into higher menu prices, hitting bars and restaurants across the US.
Indian whisky provides another example. Proposed US tariffs of up to 50% on Indian imports could add between $5 and $10 to the price of a bottle, according to the producer Radico Khaitan. Manufacturers have warned that such increases would weigh on sales in their biggest export market.
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