French President Emmanuel Macron said he had threatened Beijing with tariffs during his state visit to China if there was no action taken to reduce the country's ever-widening trade deficit with the European Union.

During Macron's visit earlier in December, he urged China to boost cooperation on "unsustainable" global trade imbalances, geopolitics and the environment.

"I tried to explain to the Chinese that their trade surplus is unsustainable because they are killing their own customers, particularly by no longer importing much from us," Macron said in an interview published on Sunday by French daily Les Echos.

"I told them that if they do not react, we Europeans would be forced, in the coming months, to take strong measures following the example of the United States, such as imposing tariffs on Chinese products," he added.

The EU's goods trade deficit with China has ballooned by nearly 60% since 2019, while France's trade balance with the $19 trillion economy continues to widen.

Macron has in the past sought to project a robust European front in dealing with China, pushing Brussels to deploy protectionist countermeasures to slow the arrival of Chinese goods hammering European industry.

Macron told Les Echos that the European industry was in a tough position, caught between U.S. President Donald Trump's protectionism and China, which "is hitting the heart of the European industrial and innovation model."

"Today, we are caught between the two and it is a matter of life or death for the European industry. We have become the adjustment market and this is the worst-case scenario," he added.

Macron also said he was proposing a more conciliatory approach towards China, such as the dismantling of restrictions on exports of semiconductor machinery on the European side and limitations on exports of rare earths on the Chinese side.

Macron called on Chinese companies to invest in Europe and to "create value and opportunities for Europe."