No, the EU is the largest market in the world. The difference is unimportant however, both the EU and the US need each other economically and this is exactly the wrong time to be having a trade war....
Perhaps the EU should have thought about this...before they started one. They already lost at the WTO...Canada has slapped a tarif on them also. You trade or not, but you can’t have your cake and eat it too.
[W]e find that the European Communities did not actually proceed to an assessment, within the meaning of Articles 5.1 and 5.2, of the risks arising from the failure of observance of good veterinary practice combined with problems of control of the use of hormones for growth promotion purposes. The abscence of such risk assessment, when considered in conjunction with the conclusion actually reached by most, if not all, of the scientific studies relating to the other aspects of risk noted earlier, leads us to the conclusion that no risk assessment that reasonably supports or warrants the import prohibition embodied in the EC Directives was furnished to the Panel. We affirm, therefore, the ultimate conclusions of the Panel that the EC import prohibition is not based on a risk assessment within the meaning of Articles 5.1 and 5.2 of the SPS Agreement and is, therefore, inconsistent with the requirements of Article 5.1.
If there truly is a free market...not that I have seen evidence of one-then let French consumers decide. If they don’t buy the meat then no point in sending it...however, illegal tariffs must be confronted.
Also, it’s always the wrong time to have a trade war...which is why EU and others get away with it...in a recession eating American cheese is not a bad thing.