France rejects trade negotiations with US while metals tariffs in place

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire says his country won't engage in free trade talks with the US "with a gun to its head," urging the Trump administration to revoke its tariffs on the imports of European steel and aluminum, Sputnik reported.

Le Maire said his country is opposed to opening free trade talks in light of the existing restrictions on bilateral trade. He urged the US to rescind its duties on European steel and aluminum first as the main pre-condition for such talks to commence.

"World trade cannot base itself on the law of the jungle and the unilateral increase of tariffs is the law of the jungle," Le Maire said at the G20 summit in Argentina.

Despite admitting global trade wars are a "reality," the French Finance Minister failed to acknowledge America's rationale behind the Section 232 tariffs. The discrepancies between the elevated EU imports tariffs and the ultra-low tariffs in the US had prompted the Trump administration to conduct its investigation into the overcapacity of steel and aluminum overseas.

But France appears to be willing to play the diplomatic game of attrition against the US after the EU concluded a lucrative free trade deal with Japan, whilst mainland China is aggressively seeking a similar accord with Europe.

"The law of the jungle will only turn out losers, it will weaken growth, threaten the most fragile countries and have disastrous political consequences," Le Maire said.