By Mathieu Rosemain, John Irish
PARIS (Reuters) -The Trump administration has ordered some French corporations with U.S. authorities contracts to conform together with his government order banning variety, fairness, and inclusion programmes, highlighting the extraterritorial attain of U.S. insurance policies and their potential influence 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 replica 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 concerning the sensible modifications focused corporations might must implement, given the differing approaches between the U.S. and France.
U.S. corporations have embraced Range, Fairness, and Inclusion insurance policies, monitoring race and ethnicity knowledge and setting variety targets. In France, a secular strategy limits such practices, with legal guidelines limiting knowledge assortment and company efforts focusing extra on gender and socioeconomic background.
The questionnaire will even spark issues in European boardrooms that the Trump administration is widening its battle towards 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 by which they function,” reads the letter, in keeping with a replica that French newspaper Le Figaro revealed on its web site.
“We’d be grateful for those who 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 might respect for those who may present detailed causes, which we are going to ahead to our authorized providers,” the letter added, just about 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, in keeping with spokespeople for the businesses. Orange declined to remark.
“American interference within the inclusion insurance policies of French corporations, together with threats of unjustified tariffs, is unacceptable,” France’s Ministry of International Commerce stated in a press release despatched to Reuters.
“France and Europe will defend their companies, their customers, and in addition their values,” the ministry, which is underneath the authority of the nation’s Ministry of International Affairs, added.
It was not instantly clear if related letters and questionnaires had been despatched to international corporations in different European international locations.
(Reporting by John Irish and Mathieu Rosemain. Enhancing by Richard Lough, Kirsten Donovan, Mark Potter and Paul Simao)
