Macron urges EU to consider trade 'bazooka' in response to US tariffs
threat
[January 21, 2026] By
SAM McNEIL
BRUSSELS (AP) — Rattled by President Donald Trump's aggression towards
Greenland, the European Union is readying counter-measures against the
United States.
But as primarily a trading bloc of 27 nations, the EU's toolkit is
mostly financial instruments, from steep tariffs on U.S. goods to the
so-called “trade bazooka" touted by French President Emmanuel Macron.
The term is shorthand for the bloc’s Anti-Coercion Instrument, or ACI,
that could sanction individuals or institutions found to be putting
undue pressure on the EU.
Those sanctions could inflict untold billions of dollars in costs to
U.S. companies by restricting EU market access, barring them from EU
public tenders, and potentially limiting foreign direct investment and
curtailing the export and import of goods and services.
So far, there's little backing in the 27-nation EU to use it, with the
exception of France.
Macron warned in Davos on Tuesday that additional tariffs by the U.S.
could force the EU to use its anti-coercion mechanism for the first
time.
“The crazy thing is that we could find ourselves in a situation where we
use the anti-coercion mechanism for the very first time against the
United States,” said Macron, arguing that allied countries should be
focusing instead on bringing peace to Ukraine.
“Can you imagine it? It’s crazy. I regret it, but it is the consequence
of unnecessary aggressiveness. Still, we must all remain calm.”
Macron described the mechanism as “a powerful instrument and we should
not hesitate to deploy it in today’s tough environment.”
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French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during the Annual Meeting of
the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 20,
2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
 EU leaders will hold an emergency
summit in Brussels on Thursday over tensions with Trump.
The ACI was established by the European Commission in 2021 after
Beijing restricted trade to Lithuania over its ties with Taiwan,
which is claimed by China as its territory.
“The primary objective of the ACI is deterrence. The instrument
will, therefore, be most successful if there is no need to use it,”
according to a commission statement issued before the dispute over
Greenland.
It would take at least six months to activate the ACI.
The value of EU-U.S. trade in goods and services amounted to 1.7
trillion euros ($2 trillion) in 2024, or an average of 4.6 billion
euros a day, according to EU statistics agency Eurostat.
Europe’s biggest exports to the U.S. are pharmaceuticals, cars,
aircraft, chemicals, medical instruments, and wine and spirits.
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Associated Press writer Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this
report.
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