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Last year, after the first Covid-19 sweep in Europe, a French textile company wrote that it was starting to make surgical masks. Within hours, the health ministry asked how much it could cost; Two days later, Les Tissages de Charlieu made 100,000 masks for French hospitals and government officials.
“Our goal was to find something simpler and more important – to make it happen,” said Antoine Saint-Pierre, chief executive of a company based in Charlieu, a textile town for over 500 years. one-fifth of the volume of exports from China, according to the company.
The disruption caused by the epidemic has led to “economic stability” and “reorganization” of key manufactured goods – whether vaccines, semiconductors or protective equipment and textiles – industry issues in Western countries. But this is especially so in France, where the return of manufacturing and imported products has been a hot-button problem before next year’s presidential election.
Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online.
In the meantime, the government of President Emmanuel Macron, who has long believed that Europe needs to restart its economic power, is proud to announce that the € 830m it has provided to companies since 2020 to help restructure jobs.
“We provided encouragement in times of crisis to ensure that manufacturers do not stop investing. It was our passion, and it went well,” Minister of Industry Agnès Pannier-Runacher told the Financial Times. He added that more than 10,000 companies had received financial support from the French EU package of assistance, while more than 620 had been helped to resume their operations.
However, economists are skeptical of the need for such a wide range of injections. They can promote small companies like Les Tissages de Charlieu, but can they change the fabric of French companies?
The textile industry offers a clear example of the risks involved, as well as other reasons why economists are skeptical.
In the midst of the industrial revolution in France, the sector collapsed in the late 19th century due to the spread of goods in Asia and Eastern Europe, where prices were lower and regulations were lower. Today, 90 percent of clothing and apparel purchased in France are manufactured abroad, according to Insee’s 2015 data. Good-natured consumers also appear less in the factory or where they came from.
This changed slightly during the epidemic, when exports declined. With the over € 1m government support that Les Tissages de Charlieu received to help carry luggage bags, the company has now increased its staff to 180 people – equivalent to 10 percent of Charlieu’s population. Her bags are also green.
The government has shown “excellent commitment” to the coast, Saint-Pierre said. “There has been a real change in government policies and actions.”
However, if the resumption of textiles could reverse the decline in the French industry is not difficult, economists argue.
‘Reshoring’ is often a ‘word of protection, “said Isabelle Mejean, an economist at Sciences Po. “It is not clear what its meaning is,” he added, although it has often been shown to be “capable of solving anything”, being financially independent, occupational or enduring climate change.
Mejean and Xavier Jaravel, a fellow member of the French Economic Analysis Institute, which provides independent government advice, recommended in April the government would do well to strengthen the French industry and protect its supply chain if it prioritises “high-risk entry”.
They warned that “successful industrial processes can be costly to consumers, without further ado. [economic] resilience ”and also mentioned important sectors such as aerospace, electronics and medicine. Clothes came second last, in front of “others”.
Even so, Pannier-Runacher defended Macron’s corporate reputation. The reversal of the French recovery plan, which will take some time to complete, also mentioned the increase in industrial activity between 2017 and 2019, when the epidemic solved the problem.
“We have created conditions to support France’s competitiveness,” he said.
However, while research shows that the business climate in France has improved significantly due to lower business taxes and changes in the labor market initiated by Macron, manufacturing remains under pressure and the decline in trade in industrial products is growing.
Patrick Artus, an economist at Natixis, says France should stand on its own two feet against Germany, which has retained the most lucrative parts of its industrial land, including its Mittelstand businesses, automotive manufacturing and research and development.
Instead of just giving money, France needs to raise business taxes that cost € 50bn more than Germany a year, improve technical skills, and put government money at risk by providing technical funding and introducing higher technology.
“You can get involved in violence and protect domestic companies,” admitted Gilles Moec, an economist at Axa Insurance Company. “As a freelance trader, I do not think we have to give up a good war in which global trade is good, and defined by experts. You can’t do anything right at home.”
Returning to Charlieu, Saint-Pierre half agrees. He believes that “it would be absurd to suggest that all production go back to France”. But he also said that many creative processes could be eliminated, creating tens of thousands of jobs and reducing environmental degradation.
“We should not disrupt the world, we just need to find unity,” he said.
Additional reports of Eir Nolsoe
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