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French Economy Minister Slams Renault, Peugeot for Offshore Production
Thursday 5 December 2019, by
The relocation of the productions of the French automakers Renault and PSA to Morocco, Slovenia and Turkey is not to the liking of Bruno Le Maire. The French Minister of the Economy expressed his anger on Monday, December 2, during a meeting bringing together all the players in the automotive industry.
"What does this mean? We produce and assemble in Morocco, Slovakia and Turkey to reimport into France for commercial purposes. I am not satisfied with a model where the two best-selling vehicles in France - the Peugeot 208 and the Renault Clio - are no longer produced in France," says Bruno Le Maire. For the French Minister of the Economy, this development model is a failure.
The production costs mentioned as reasons by the manufacturers to justify, among other things, this policy do not satisfy Bruno Le Maire. According to him, it is the admission of a double failure. "An economic failure, because it has led to the relocation of our production and the destruction of jobs. France is the European country that has the most relocated its automotive industry over the past decade. An ecological failure, because it has led to an increase in CO2 emissions," he observed, before hammering that France no longer wants this model.
To reverse the trend, Bruno Le Maire proposes an alternative model. In this sense, the minister has launched a committee led by Hervé Guyot, former CEO of the French equipment manufacturer Faurecia. "The mission is to evaluate in the coming months with the manufacturers the conditions to maintain and relocate the activity in France (...) and improve the relations between contractors and subcontractors," he specified.