ECB’s Villeroy: US Policies A ‘Lose-Lose Game’, Negotiations and De-Escalation Best Outcome

22 April 2025

ECB’s Villeroy: US Policies A ‘Lose-Lose Game’, Negotiations and De-Escalation Best Outcome
François Villeroy de Galhau, governor of the Banque de France, at the European Central Bank Forum on Central Banking in Sintra on July 2, 2024. Photo by the ECB under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member François Villeroy de Galhau said on Tuesday that recent US trade policies would create losses for all parties and increase the problems created by globalisation.

In a speech at the Foreign Policy Association in New York, Villeroy, who heads the Banque de France, said that ‘the current lose-lose game will obviously increase [the problems and imbalances caused by globalisation], and in no way solve them.’

Europe and the US had to use the 90-day tariff pause ‘to seriously talk’, he said.

Negotiations followed by de-escalation would be the better option, according to Villeroy, not a tit-for-tat tariff hike spiral.

Villeroy viewed Europe’s reaction so far positively, having already presented retaliatory measures but delaying their application.

‘It is also in Europe’s interest to maintain open trade ties with a maximum amount of partners from the Americas to Asia: increasing the number of balanced free trade agreements – including Mercosur – is a strategic priority’, he said.

 

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