The presence of Emmanuel Macron on the first day of the Paris agricultural exhibition hid messages about Donald Trump. ‘Allies should not make each other suffer with duties’among other things, the French president said, while Donald Trump threatens to impose tariffs on many European products.
“I’ll talk to him about it because all this has to be restored”said the French president, who is about to meet his US counterpart in Washington on Monday. “The (French) agricultural and agri -food sector is an important export sector, so we must defend it to make it even more competitive.”he added.
Since returning to the White House, Donald Trump has announced the implementation of mutual duties, which means that the United States will apply the same level of customs duties to products from a country with the level applied to this country for American products.
In France, wine -growers are particularly concerned about the return of US duties to cognac and wine, which export massively to the United States, especially because brandy is already a victim of a trade dispute between the EU and China, its largest market in terms of value.
‘I hope we find solutions’
“I am determined on all issues to have an exchange” with Donald Trump, “said Emmanuel Macron. “We will share our agreements, our disagreements, and I hope we will find solutions on the issue of Ukraine.”
“I will try to persuade him to move in the right direction and, if not, we will take steps,” the French president added shortly afterwards, recalling that the US is a “historic ally” and stressed that “we must all act to limit” Russia.
Washington’s plan and Trump’s statement
Washington has proposed a plan of resolution at the UN General Assembly calling for “rapid ending of the conflict and calls for constant peace between Ukraine and Russia”, a vague wording that is far from previous texts that clearly support Kiev and which does not mention the respect for the territorial integrity of the country.
The US president also launched a new attack on his Ukrainian counterpart Friday. Although he believed that Volodimir Zelenski and Vladimir Putin “would have to talk to each other” to “put an end to the slaughter of millions of people”, he held that the presence of the Ukrainian president “is not important” in negotiations with Russia.
He also targeted Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Kir Starmer, who according to him “did nothing” to put an end to the war. The British prime minister is expected in Washington on Thursday.
“Zelenski is not ready to sign the mineral agreement”
Ukraine President Volodimir Zelenski “is not ready” to sign an agreement with the United States that will provide them with privileged access to the country’s minerals, a source close to the French agency said today.
“The president is not ready to accept the work in his current form. We are still trying to make changes in a constructive way, “the source explained.
Yesterday, White House National Security Adviser Mike Walts said Zelenski would agree “very soon” to sign an agreement on his country’s mineral extraction.
Zelenski has rejected the request of President Donald Trump’s US government to allocate Ukraine worth $ 500 billion to repay Washington for her help, saying that the amount she has been provided so far is not even close to it. It also disagrees because the agreement does not provide specific security guarantees.
