French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire on Friday called the United States' sanctions against French wines "deeply unjust" and announced he would ask the Trump administration to suspend them. "Hitting the winemakers (...) is profoundly unfair and incomprehensible on the part of our American ally," said the minister at a press conference in Washington, before meeting with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer , to whom he will ask "their suspension".
"An aggressive gesture" of "American allies"
Bruno Le Maire was in Washington to attend the annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank. He also denounced the "aggressive gesture" of "American allies", after the imposition of punitive customs taxes on $ 7.5 billion (6.7 billion euros) of European products. "It is an aggressive gesture and between allies, these aggressive gestures are not welcome," said the minister.
During the press conference, Bruno Le Maire also announced that France, Italy and Germany were working together to ban the cryptocurrency of Facebook, the Libra, on European soil. "The Libra is not welcome on the European territory, we will take action with the Italians and the Germans because it is our sovereignty that is at stake," he said, without detailing these measures.