By Mathieu Rosemain, John Irish
PARIS (Reuters) -The Trump administration has ordered some French firms with U.S. authorities contracts to conform along with his govt order banning variety, fairness, and inclusion programmes, highlighting the extraterritorial attain of U.S. insurance policies and their potential impression on European company practices.
The businesses have been informed to substantiate their compliance in a questionnaire entitled “Certification Relating to Compliance With Relevant Federal Anti-Discrimination Regulation.” Reuters has seen a duplicate of the questionnaire.
President Donald Trump’s “America First” insurance policies have stoked financial and political tensions between the U.S. and Europe since his January 20 inauguration.
The U.S. questionnaire raises questions in regards to the sensible adjustments focused firms could have to implement, given the differing approaches between the U.S. and France.
U.S. firms have embraced Variety, Fairness, and Inclusion insurance policies, monitoring race and ethnicity knowledge and setting variety targets. In France, a secular method limits such practices, with legal guidelines limiting knowledge assortment and company efforts focusing extra on gender and socioeconomic background.
The questionnaire may even spark issues in European boardrooms that the Trump administration is widening its battle in opposition to DEI insurance policies abroad, at a time when Trump’s actions on tariffs and safety ties have upended transatlantic relations.
French enterprise day by day Les Echos, which first reported the U.S. demand late on Friday, stated it had been despatched out to companies by the U.S. embassy in Paris.
“We inform you that Government Order 14173, Ending Unlawful Discrimination and Restoring Benefit-based Alternatives, signed by President Trump, applies to all suppliers and repair suppliers of the U.S. Authorities, no matter their nationality and the nation through which they function,” reads the letter, based on a duplicate that French newspaper Le Figaro printed on its web site.
“We’d be grateful should you may full and signal the doc in English inside 5 days and return it to us by e-mail. If you don’t conform to signal this doc, we’d respect should you may present detailed causes, which we are going to ahead to our authorized companies,” the letter added, as regards to the certification seen by Reuters.
An embassy spokesperson didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
‘UNACCEPTABLE’
There was no indication that the businesses receiving the letter had been chosen based mostly on their presence within the U.S. A supply near the matter confirmed that France’s state-controlled telecoms group Orange, which has no U.S. presence, obtained the letter.
In the meantime, defence electronics agency Thales and oil main TotalEnergies, each with operations within the U.S., didn’t obtain it, based on spokespeople for the businesses. Orange declined to remark.
“American interference within the inclusion insurance policies of French firms, together with threats of unjustified tariffs, is unacceptable,” France’s Ministry of Overseas Commerce stated in a press release despatched to Reuters.
“France and Europe will defend their companies, their shoppers, and in addition their values,” the ministry, which is beneath the authority of the nation’s Ministry of Overseas Affairs, added.
It was not instantly clear if comparable letters and questionnaires had been despatched to overseas firms in different European nations.
(Reporting by John Irish and Mathieu Rosemain. Enhancing by Richard Lough, Kirsten Donovan, Mark Potter and Paul Simao)
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