After Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Marine Le Pen or François Bayrou, Michel Barnier in turn denounces the “bad agreement” negotiated between the EU and the United States on Sunday, July 27.
In an interview with the Tribune on Sunday, this Saturday, August 2, the former prime minister believes that this agreement is “unbalanced and dictated to the European Union in quite humiliating conditions.”
A “defensive” position denounced
The republican framework markedly regrets the “defensive” position adopted by the EU. “The option to maintain a real balance of power, by preparing retaliation measures, especially in US digital giants, obviously has never been seriously considered,” deplores.
For Michel Barnier, the European domestic market, considered “the main asset” of the EU, should have been presented in the negotiations to be able to maintain the balance of power. ” In the same way as the “very strong deficit in terms of services”, which could have made possible, according to him, use “the tools at our disposal to pressure the technological industry and US financial services” and, therefore, “obtain another agreement.”
Wines and spirits, “a considerable game”
Like several European heads, including Giorgia Meloni or German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Michel Barnier declares to monitor exemptions. “The Wine and Liquor sector has a considerable problem for France against the United States and China. It is an emblematic sector of French knowledge and is a fault on the part of the Chinese to have attacked it, as it would be by the Americans,” he said.
The wines and spirits of the European Union will be subject to customs tasks of 15% in the United States until an agreement is concluded in the framework of negotiations that should continue in autumn, however, they declared officials and diplomats of the EU to the EU Reuters.
Although US customs duties on European wines and spirits are currently 10%, the EU wishes to bring them back to zero or at least, for wine, if the rate is established in accordance with the principle of “the most favored nation” (NPF), that is, on the basis of a fixed cost per liter instead of percentage.
Source: BFM TV
