French President Emmanuel Macron said he had threatened Beijing with tariffs during his state visit to China if there was no action taken to reduce the country’s ever-widening trade deficit with the European Union.

During Macron’s visit earlier in December, he urged China to boost cooperation on “unsustainable” global trade imbalances, geopolitics and the environment.

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“I tried to explain to the Chinese that their trade surplus is unsustainable because they are killing their own customers, particularly by no longer importing much from us,” Macron said in an interview published on Sunday by French daily Les Echos.

“I told them that if they do not react, we Europeans would be forced, in the coming months, to take strong measures following the example of the United States, such as imposing tariffs on Chinese products,” he added.

The EU’s goods trade deficit with China has ballooned by nearly 60% since 2019, while France’s trade balance with the $19 trillion economy continues to widen.

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