(28 Feb 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Porto, Portugal – 28 February 2025
1. Arrival shot of French President Emmanuel Macron and Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro into briefing room
2. Cutaway of journalists
3. SOUNDBITE (French): Emmanuel Macron, French President:
"There have been the first tariffs, that in the broad sense, not only on European tax, on aluminium and steel. If they are confirmed, the Europeans will respond and so there will be reciprocal tariffs. Because we need to protect and defend ourselves and if, at the beginning of April, as has been announced, tariffs are imposed on European products at this level, the Europeans will have to respond. We don’t have to be weak in the face of these measures. So what we need to do over the next few weeks is convince people that this is not a good decision, generally speaking, for our geopolitical interests shared between the United States of America and the Europeans, and that it would be bad for everyone. But if it should come to that then we must respond and we will deal with it."
4. Wide of Macron and Montenegro
5. SOUNDBITE (French): Emmanuel Macron, French President:
"I brought up the subject of tariffs, myself, during and after this trip (to the US) saying that the discussions had been difficult and that I was leaving with very little hope. Why? Because I think that there are misunderstandings, misconceptions in the approach to trade, which is today proposed by this administration (the US) and at the heart of the reasoning, is that tax on consumption, in particular the tax on added value (VAT or TVA) would be a tariff. This is factually wrong. So I pleaded, I explained. We exchanged papers with President Trump and his team, and I think the work needs to be done to the end, in conjunction with our partners, because (UK Prime Minister) Keir Starmer did the same thing yesterday and the (EU) Commission has done the same thing. It’s very simple, because the VAT we have in our countries means that what we produce is taxed in the same way as what we import. As you can see, it’s not a tariff, there’s no difference between what’s imported and what’s produced locally. So I’ve tried to plead in what seemed obvious to me and I hope we’ll be able to convince people of this."
6. Departure shot of the two leaders
STORYLINE:
French President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged Friday he has “very little hope” in changing US President Donald Trump’s mind on applying a wholesale tariff of 25% on all EU products, after his trip to Washington earlier this week.
“I believe there are misunderstandings and misconceptions in the trade approach” of the Trump administration, Macron said, speaking at a news conference during a visit to Portugal.
He added that describing value added tax (VAT), which is implemented on all local and foreign goods and services in France, as a tariff is “factually false.”
Macron argued tariffs are “bad for everyone” because they lead to price increases.
"The United States has nothing to gain from them," he said.
He warned that if the U.S. decision was to be confirmed, "the Europeans will respond and so there will be reciprocal tariffs."
AP Video by Helena Alves
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