French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that tariffs levied by powerful countries were often a form of “blackmail” rather than instruments to rebalance trade, Reuters reported.

His comments in a speech at the International Conference on Financing for Development in Seville, Spain, came with the EU negotiating a trade deal with the US before a July 9 deadline, though he did not specifically refer to the US or US President Donald Trump.

“We need to restore freedom and equity to international trade, much more than barriers and tariffs, which are devised by the strongest, and which are often used as instruments of blackmail, not at all as instruments of rebalancing,” Macron said, according to Reuters ​​​​​​.