Nicolas Bouzou 10:17 a.m., January 10, 2022

In November 2021, the French trade deficit widened again by 9 billion.

A major problem, which reveals the structural problems of the French economy, and in particular the weakness of its industry's exports.

For our columnist Nicolas Bouzou, we need a big plan to remedy this problem.

EDITORIAL

Sad record.

According to Customs, the French trade deficit widened further to reach 9 billion euros in November alone.

This trade deficit is a major problem, which threatens our future prosperity.

These 9 billion euros in November, that represents 100 billion euros at an annual rate, which is absolutely colossal.

This deficit is not linked to the fact that energy prices have increased.

This deficit is above all an industrial structural problem that began in the late 1990s and has worsened since the start of the pandemic.

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France victim of deindustrialisation

You have to understand what that means from an economic point of view.

A trade deficit means that collectively, in France, we consume much more than what we produce.

And this is a phenomenon that the current term of office has failed to correct.

The truth is that France is living far beyond its means and this is a problem because it reveals deindustrialisation.

Industry today represents less than 10% of our GDP.

It was more than 20% at the start of the 1980s. The fall is striking in the automobile industry and the food industry, which were the flagships of our industry and which have become sectors in need of competitiveness.

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France needs bigger companies and more innovative companies.

Our economy has done a lot in recent years for price competitiveness.

We have put in place the responsibility pact, the tax credit for competitiveness and employment, the reduction in production taxes, and all of this improves our competitiveness.

"We must again redouble our efforts"

We have also stimulated innovation with the research tax credit.

But we must go much further and tell ourselves that it is a national priority.

We have redoubled our efforts in terms of competitiveness over the past ten years.

We must again redouble our efforts.

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For example, we can continue to lower production taxes.

But I believe that we have to have a different vision of this competitiveness problem.

Today, innovation aid and foreign trade aid are very dispersed.

It is partly driven by Bercy, partly driven by Matignon.

Several grants are also partly managed by the Ministry of Higher Education which, in theory, should take care of research.

In reality, we see that all this does not work.

You have to bring everything together.

We will not improve our foreign trade by one-off measures taken in silos, but by a global vision of what to produce and how to do it.