Trump announced punitive tariffs last week, throwing global markets into chaos, then decided on April 9 that he was suspending the measures on almost all economies for 90 days.
French President Emmanuel Macron warned that reducing US tariffs to 10% was a "fragile pause", and said Europe must "mobilise all available mechanisms to defend itself".
"Together with the European Commission, we must be strong: Europe must continue to work on all necessary countermeasures," he wrote in X after Donald Trump's surprise announcement that he was pausing tariff hikes aimed at the European Union.
The EU was hit by a 20 percent rate as part of Trump's universal tariffs and the Commission is preparing its response, although Brussels has made it clear it prefers to avoid retaliation.
Trump announced the punitive tariffs last week, throwing global markets into chaos, then decided on April 9 that he was suspending the measures on almost all economies for 90 days.
The 27-nation EU is among dozens of economies, including Japan but not China, that now face a base tariff rate of 10%, AFP reports.
Macron said the EU must avoid "flows of products from third countries" that could "upset the balance of our market."
He added that the European Commission's goal was "simple: to negotiate the elimination of these unfair tariffs and to reach a balanced agreement without asymmetries," as this three-month pause represents "90 days of uncertainty for all our businesses on both sides of the Atlantic and beyond."
"We have a right to fight: our countries' jobs and lives are at stake," he said. | BGNES