PARIS – Representatives of the European Government and representatives of companies have paid contempt on a request from the United States Department of State for companies to abandon diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
The ministers of France and Belgium have greatly rejected the effort of the Trump administration to extend its anti-dei policies, which have targeted universities, businesses, government entrepreneurs and security services in the world.
“It is out of the question that we will prevent our activities from promoting additional social progress (and) social rights,” said French Minister of Gender Equality Aurore Bergé in an interview with BFMTV on Sunday. “Fortunately, many French companies do not plan to change their policies.”
“We have a culture of non-discrimination in Europe and we have to continue,” Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Jan Jambon said on Sunday evening on the French-language television channel RTL-TVI. “We have no lessons to learn from the boss of America.”
Several French companies have received a letter – reported for the first time by Les Echos and obtained by Politico – forcing them to certify that they do not implement Dei or positive discrimination programs.
“If you do not agree to sign this document, we would like you that you can provide detailed reasons, that we will send to our legal teams”, reads the request sent to French companies and signed by Stanislas Parmentier, the contract agent of the United States Embassy in Paris.
Companies from other EU countries, notably Italy, Spain and Belgium have received similar requests.
“American interference in the inclusion policies of French companies, as well as the unjustified threats of prices, are unacceptable,” said a statement from the Trade ministry on Saturday.
The office of the Minister of the Economy, Eric Lombard, said that the minister would raise the question with his American counterparts.
“This practice reflects the values of the new American government. It is not ours,” the Lombard office said on Friday in a statement.
The French commercial environment is also indignant. “We cannot look at ourselves, we have values, rules, we must respect them,” Patrick Martin, president of the influential affairs of France, said on Sunday, to the LCI diffuser.
The spit increases transatlantic tensions a few days before a new escalation in the current transatlantic trade war. Trump administration threatened to announce a new massive wave of prices on April 2.
Politices
