Trump attacked France on Tuesday. The American President predicted during an interview with the Fox News channel he owns “lots of problems with France” and attack “unfair tax” on American technology.
He was responding to a question from presenter Laura Ingraham, who asked him about the arrival of Chinese students at American universities and his administration’s changes to foreign students. “They’re not French, they’re Chinese. They spy on us. They steal our intellectual property…”he argued, before being interrupted.
“You think the French are better, do you? I’ll tell you, I’m not sure.”Donald Trump replied, turning the discussion to French tax policy. “We have a lot of problems with France, which imposes unfair taxes on our technology”he continued.
As a reminder, the American Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, stated in May that Washington would do so “actively revoke visas for Chinese students”. However, a few months later, Trump announced that his country would allow the arrival of 600,000 Chinese students.
Trade ceasefire between Washington and Beijing
And for good reason, the American president met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in late October, and the two countries agreed to a ceasefire in their trade war after months of tension.
Regarding France, the European Union and the United States have in principle reached a framework agreement known as the Turnberry agreement. This agreement sets a basic import duty rate of 15% on imports of goods originating from the EU into the United States.
Certain goods (steel, auto parts) remain subject to additional American duties, while others (certain natural resources, aircraft parts, etc.) benefit from the exemption. In retaliation, the EU has developed countermeasures which, however, are still suspended for six months from 6 August 2025.
