BERLIN — German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Monday that Berlin and Paris would negotiate a joint strategy to stave off U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest tariff threats in the run up to a gathering of the bloc’s 27 leaders in Brussels this week.

French President Emmanuel Macron’s office on Sunday asked the European Union to activate the bloc’s Anti-Coercion Instrument, nicknamed the trade bazooka. Germany — dependent on trade with the U.S. to a greater extent than France — has been more reluctant to hit back hard at Washington.

“France is affected by the American tariffs to a different extent than we are, and in this respect I understand that the French government and the French president want to react a little more harshly than we do,” Merz said. “Nevertheless, we are trying to adopt and will manage to find a common position before we go to the European Council.”

Merz stressed he was looking to deescalate the situation, partly by seeking to meet Trump in Davos on Wednesday. He added, however, that the EU would be ready to hit back if necessary, keeping all options open.

“We have a set of instruments at our disposal, and we agree that we do not want to use them. But if we have to use them, then we will do so. To what extent, with what intensity? That will depend on the situation as it arises with the U.S. government,” the center-right chancellor said.