The trade deficit reached a record in France in 2021, since it widened to 84.7 billion euros over the past year.
A chasm that is mainly justified by the country's structural difficulties in terms of exports.
Reindustrialisation, choice of top of the range, know-how to be developed… The site is big for France if it wants to regain color and international sales.
In 2021, the French economy remained on historic growth at 7%, a record for 52 years, and the promise of a bright future.
But this good record is now tarnished by a new record on Tuesday, much more negative over the past year.
2021 was marked by a trade deficit never seen in France, at 84.7 billion euros, pulverizing the figure for 2011, 75 billion.
The French economy may well be rolling, its foreign trade remains a weak point that is here to stay.
Admittedly, such a deficit is partly explained by cyclical reasons specific to 2021. The explosion of the energy bill, with the rise in the price of these materials, mostly justifies this record in a France which imports massive amounts of energy. , reassures the economist and specialist in macroeconomics Stéphanie Villers.
Another “so 2021” reason, the famous 7% growth, leading to totally unbridled consumption and therefore a surge in imports to satisfy well-spent French people.
Thus, according to customs figures, imports rose by +18.8% compared to 2020.
Average quality, high price
These specific reasons cannot, however, overshadow France's export difficulties.
Proof of this is, "apart from 2021, the trade deficit has averaged 65 billion euros each year for ten years", recalls Anne-Sophie Alsif, chief economist at the Bureau of Economic Information and Forecasts (BIPE) and international trade specialist.
In a note dated December 7, the High Commission for Planning notes that “French exports increased by 54% between 2001 and 2019, when the increase was 76% in Italy, 108% in Germany and 133% in Spain”.
Big gap, simple explanation: the vast majority of French products are not competitive abroad, due to poor positioning.
“France does mid-range, but at a high cost.
As a result, other countries prefer either to buy a cheaper product, or a more upscale product”, points out Stéphanie Villers.
To illustrate the problem, Anne-Sophie Alsif schematizes with the automobile market: if you want a low-cost car, you will turn to an Asian car.
If you want a classy car, you'll take a German.
In both cases, the French car is neglected.
“France cannot fight against the prices of the Asian market, it must therefore lean towards high-end products, where the cost is of no importance.
We will buy the product for its quality, regardless of its price, like BMWs,” insists the director.
aim higher
On the rare top-of-the-range markets that it covers, France masters its subject and its exports: luxury, chemicals, agri-food or pharmacology, Anne-Sophie Alsif list, before pointing out the problem: "Yes, the France has know-how and expertise in quality products that provide added value.
The problem is that its top-of-the-range range is very limited”, unlike the Germans in particular.
For Stéphanie Villers, France made the bad bet of trying to be good everywhere without trying to excel in specific areas.
“European production with low added value does not work internationally,” she points out.
The deindustrialization of France, the original sin
France is also paying for having sacrificed its industry.
“In the 1980s, the country favored service jobs over those in industry, in order to preserve jobs,” recalls Anne-Sophie Alsif.
The justification at the time was that service professions would not be threatened by relocation to cheaper countries or by robotization, unlike industrial professions, which should guarantee the good shape of the labor market.
The other side of the coin: a massive deindustrialization of France, whose country could only see the enormous defects during this health crisis: lack of local production, dependence on foreign countries and therefore a drop in exports.
A problem pointed out by the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire, who declared this Tuesday morning on France Inter: "There are no other solutions to restore France's external trade balance than to reindustrialize massively, quickly our country ".
Reindustrialize, yes, but at what cost?
The problem is that we don't grow factories like that in France.
"Reindustrializing the country and going to the top of the range, that necessarily means robotization and autonomous production methods which will put a lot of jobs with low added value out of work", warns Stéphanie Villers, who evokes "a choice of society ".
The top of the range also requires jobs, but this time very qualified, specifies Anne-Sophie Alsif.
Be that as it may, for the two experts, there are not really any alternatives.
"We missed a train in 2000 around digital, it would be better to avoid missing this time the wagon of new means of production, such as 3D printing, for example", supports Stéphanie Villers.
"France is not zero, has not lost its know-how and always knows how to excel, it just has to give itself the means", abounds the director of BIPE.
Still, the project to come should not provide convincing results for years, continues Anne-Sophie Alsif: “We may be strong in France, we do not impose ourselves on the top of the range in a few months.
Proof of this is that, despite the country's reindustrialisation, in 2022, "the trade deficit should increase and could reach the 100 billion euro mark",
estimated this Tuesday Stéphane Colliac, economist at BNP Paribas, interviewed by the French Press Agency.
Positivism will wait.
Economy
France's trade deficit reaches 84.7 billion euros in 2021
Economy
Growth: Behind the record 7% rebound, "tensions over the sharing of wealth are growing"
International
Export
Trade
Growth
Deficit
Economy
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