The deal reached yesterday in talks between US President Donald Trump and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen in Scotland “will provide temporary stability… but it is unbalanced,” Benjamin Haddad, the French minister for Europe, wrote on X.

Haddad welcomed some aspects of the agreement, including exemptions on industries key to the French economy, and that the agreement left in place European regulations on sectors like digital technology and healthcare.

“But let’s be clear: the current situation is not satisfactory and cannot be sustained,” he said, adding that the US “has chosen economic coercion and a complete disregard for the rules of the World Trade Organization”.

“We must quickly draw the necessary conclusions or risk being wiped out,” he wrote.

“If the Europeans don’t wake up, the difficulties faced by others will seem all too relative compared to our own decline,” he added.