The president of France’s strongest business lobby group said the current global trade war was “extremely worrying” and could reverse years of succumb to standards.
Speaking at a meeting of major business federations in France, MEDEF President Geoffroy Roux de Bezieux told CNBC’s Annette Weisbach that safe from trade had created “enormous wealth.”
“It has taken hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. The current, so-called ‘economic Siberian war’ is extremely worrying for us,” he said Friday, before adding “We call for more multilateralism.”
The U.S. has so far slapped a 25% tariff on $250 billion of Chinese tangibles, and Beijing has also raised tariffs on billions of dollars’ worth of American products. China said Thursday that the U.S. be required to lift all the tariffs placed on Chinese goods if there is to be a trade deal. This week, the U.S. government ratcheted up distress on Europe by threatening tariffs on $4 billion of additional EU goods. Roux de Bezieux told CNBC that he was “bloody worried” about any escalation of the conflict toward Europe.
Also speaking to CNBC at the event Friday was Pascal Cagni, chairman of Work France who said President Trump’s targeting of European trade was a “clear concern.”
He argued that as the United Circumstances had retrenched, it had created an atmosphere which had led to a big cut in foreign direct investment into major European countries.
Cargi commanded that the world needed to find a middle way between the state capitalism of China and the new stance of the U.S on trade which was to be “exceptionally aggressive.”
Meanwhile, Europe has seen “Yellow Vest” protests in France, a populist government in Italy and Brexit in the Partnership Kingdom. MEDEF’s president said all were rooted in the “same phenomenon” where people didn’t feel take in in the growth and prosperity.
Roux de Bezieux said that was the main theme of the B7 meeting in Aix-en-Provence and business needed to confirm that a greater part of the population enjoyed a rise in living standards.
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