“When we import more than we export, it’s the whole country that we impoverish”

2023-08-30 20:01:40

By Marie Visot

Posted yesterday at 8:01 PM, Updated yesterday at 8:01 PM

“Our SMEs and our craftsmen do not export because they consider it a risk. While on the contrary, it is not to export which is actually a risk”, assures Olivier Becht. SEBASTIEN SORIANO/Le Figaro

INTERVIEW – The Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade and Attractiveness reveals to Le Figaro the new government plan “Dare to export”.

LE FIGARO.- French companies claim that they still have tens of billions of euros of competitiveness gap with Germany. Is this what explains our difficulties in exporting today?

Olivier BECHT.- France can and must once again become a great exporting and commercial power. We have been in the past, there is no fatality that we do not become so again. France cannot bring itself to chronic trade deficits. When we import more than we export, the whole country is impoverished. This must be stopped, it is also a question of sovereignty.

Read alsoReshuffle: ex-LR Olivier Becht appointed to Foreign Trade

We manufacture the best products in the world: trains, planes, cruise ships, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, chemicals, cheeses, cereals, construction of roads, hotels, satellites… There is a French excellence, it must emerge even more . This is why we have considerably reduced the competitiveness gap with Germany over the past six years. We lowered the…

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