France’s President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a G20 Leaders’ Summit plenary session at the Nasrec Expo Centre in Johannesburg on November 22, 2025. Photo: AFP
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday that the US Supreme Court ruling on President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs shows that it is good to have counterweights to power and the rule of law in democracies.
“It is not bad to have a Supreme Court and, therefore, the rule of law,” he said at the annual agricultural salon in Paris, in response to a question about Friday’s ruling by the US Supreme Court that tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump under an economic emergency law were illegal.
“It is good to have power and counterweights to power in democracies,” Macron said.
He added that France would consider the consequences of Trump’s new 10% global tariff and adapt, and the country wants to continue to export its products, including agricultural, luxury, fashion and aeronautical goods.
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He said that a calm mindset was needed and that the fairest rule was “reciprocity” and not to “be subjected to unilateral decisions.”
Trump moved swiftly on Friday to replace tariffs struck down by the Supreme Court with a temporary 10% global import duty for 150 days and ordered new investigations under other laws that could allow him to re-impose the tariffs.
Trump signed executive orders late on Friday to impose new tariffs starting on Tuesday under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, partly replacing tariffs of 10% to 50% under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act that the top court declared illegal, and ending collection of the now-banned duties.
The orders continued exemptions already in place for aerospace products; passenger cars and some light trucks; goods from Mexico and Canada that are compliant with the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement; pharmaceuticals and certain critical minerals and agricultural products.
