Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on February 21, 2026
2 min readLast updated: April 3, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleFrance told the FT that Brussels has tools to respond to Trump's new 10% global tariff after a Supreme Court ruling voided many prior levies. Options include the EU's anti-coercion 'trade bazooka' and suspended tariffs on over 90 billion euros in U.S. goods.
Feb 21 (Reuters) - Brussels has the tools to hit back at the United States for its latest round of tariffs, France's trade minister Nicolas Forissier told the Financial Times on Saturday.
Paris was in talks with EU counterparts and the European Commission over U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to impose a flat global tariff of 10% after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that many of the existing tariffs he had levied on trading partners were illegal, Forissier said.
"Should it become necessary, the EU has the appropriate instruments at its disposal," Forissier told the FT.
The EU response could include options such as the "trade bazooka", an anti-coercion instrument (ACI) that could affect U.S. technology companies, the newspaper said, citing French officials.
The ACI has a broad range of powers from export controls to tariffs on services, as well as excluding U.S. companies from EU procurement contracts, it said.
There is also a suspended package of retaliatory tariffs on more than 90 billion euros ($106 billion) of U.S. goods that could be deployed, the report added.
($1 = 0.8489 euros)
(Reporting by Ruchika Khanna in Bengaluru; Editing by Jan Harvey)
France says the EU has tools to retaliate against a new 10% global U.S. tariff announced after a Supreme Court ruling invalidated many of Trump's earlier levies.
The Anti-Coercion Instrument, nicknamed the 'trade bazooka', is an EU tool that enables countermeasures such as tariffs, export controls, services restrictions and procurement bans.
Measures under discussion include deploying the ACI to target U.S. tech and services, imposing export controls and activating a suspended package of tariffs on over 90 billion euros of U.S. goods.
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