28/02/2025 (Agence Europe) – On a trip to Porto, French President Emmanuel Macron announced, on Friday 28 February, that if the 25% US tariffs on steel and aluminium were “confirmed, the Europeans will respond, and so there will be reciprocal tariffs. Because we need to protect and defend ourselves”. Mr Macron also explained that if, at the beginning of April, as announced on Wednesday by US President Donald Trump (see EUROPE 13588/6), customs duties of 25% were applied to all EU products, “the Europeans will have to respond”. Alongside him, the Portuguese Prime Minister, Luis Montenegro, said that Europe should “react by applying tariffs of the same or similar amount”. In his opinion, it would make “no sense not to do the same thing, to reciprocate”. (CG)