‘Dark Day’: EU Leaders Criticize US Trade Deal as Unfair

France and other European countries on Monday heaped scorn on a new trade deal between the European Union and the US, calling it a “dark day” for Europe, and complaining that the bloc surrendered to the US and received an unbalanced agreement, Reuters reported. 

“It is a dark day when an alliance of free peoples, brought together to affirm their common values and to defend their common interests, resigns itself to submission,” French Prime Minister François Bayrou wrote on X. 

According to the deal announced over the weekend, which followed months of negotiations, the US will impose a 15 percent tariff on most imports from the EU – one of the US’ top trading partners – half of the previously threatened rate, the Washington Post wrote. 

Meanwhile, the EU will not place additional tariffs on the US under the current deal.  

US President Donald Trump also said that, according to the deal, the EU will purchase $750 billion in energy and invest more in the US, as well as increase its purchase of US military equipment. 

Bayrou’s criticism followed months of France urging the EU to adopt a firmer approach toward Trump, including the threat of retaliatory measures. 

The bloc, which behaves as a single market on trade, has held off retaliatory tariffs for months, hoping trade talks would be successful. However, the EU also had a backup plan consisting of a list of more than $100 billion worth of US goods to tax if talks failed. 

France’s reaction stood in sharp contrast to the softer line advocated by Germany and Italy, two countries that rely more on exports to the US. 

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called the agreement a “good deal” and a “huge deal,” even if she later said that tariffs on cars, which have been decreased from 25 to 15 percent, were “the best we could get.” 

Several EU countries acknowledged that the deal establishes some certainty with Europe’s biggest trading partner following months of turmoil, with Sweden, for example, calling it the “least bad alternative” and Spain backing it, albeit “without enthusiasm.” 

While French officials agreed that the deal had some benefits, such as exemptions for industries like distilled alcohol and aerospace, they said that the framework is fundamentally unbalanced. 

French Trade Minister Laurent Saint-Martin criticized the EU’s negotiating stance, saying it was too passive in the face of what he described as a power play by Trump. 

The US is hurrying to close trade deals with many of its trade partners ahead of the Aug. 1 deadline Trump has repeatedly postponed due to pressure from markets and intense lobbying by industry.  

In recent months, the Trump administration secured deals with the United Kingdom, Vietnam, Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines, and a preliminary agreement with China.