French President Emmanuel Macron has called on the European Commission to slap tariffs across multiple sectors to protect Europe’s ailing industry. Europe is the only “place where we don’t protect our domestic players,” Macron said, pointing to Chinese and American efforts to boost industrial production through state-led industrial policies and tariffs. “If we want to remain sovereign, we have to protect the existing players when they suffer from the absence of a level playing field,” he added. China accounted for roughly a third of global manufacturing output in 2023, according to the Centre for Economic Policy Research: three times more than the second-placed US. Germany, the EU’s traditional industrial powerhouse, accounted for just 4%.