Automotive Exports September 2023

France presses
China on
market access,
lobbies for EV
investment
France said it had pressed Chinese
leaders to open their markets wider
to foreign companies and lobbied for
electric car investment, as the European
Union’s second-largest economy followed
Washington in reviving post-COVID
economic talks amid tension over Beijing’s
surging trade surpluses.
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire
also defended Paris’s controls on foreign
access to technology after authorities
said two Chinese citizens are under
investigation for what news reports say
is possible smuggling of French-made
processor chips with military uses to China
and Russia.
Le Maire met with Vice Premier He Lifeng,
Beijing’s top envoy on economic issues. He
followed Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen,
who visited Beijing on July 9-10 as part of
U.S. efforts to revive frosty relations with
China.
Chinese officials gave Le Maire and Yellen
a warm welcome as part of efforts to
reverse an economic slump by reviving
foreign investor interest. But Beijing has
given no indication of possible changes
in technology and other policies that
its trading partners say violate Chinese
market-opening commitments.
Officials of the 27-nation European Union
are trying to narrow a trade deficit with
China that swelled to 396 billion euros
($432 billion) last year. Le Maire cited
cosmetics, aerospace and agriculture as
possible areas for more French exports.
“There is a need to improve access to the
Chinese market. I think it was at the core
of our discussions,” Le Maire said in an
interview at the French Embassy. “We want
to have a stronger economic relationship
between Europe and China, between
France and China, which means to get
access for all European goods.”
Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s government has
looked to Europe as an alternative market
and source of technology since Washington
tightened controls on access to U.S.
processor chips and other high-tech goods
and hiked tariffs on imports from China
in a feud over its industry development
ambitions.
Le Maire and Chinese officials pledged to
cooperate on climate change, financing for
developing countries and nuclear power.
They announced plans to set up a group
to settle a dispute over access to China’s
market for cosmetics, a major French
export.
Le Maire also lobbied for investment from
China’s fast-growing electric car industry.
He was due to fly to the southern city of
Shenzhen to meet Wang Chuanfu, founder
of BYD Auto, one of the world’s biggest
electric vehicle (EV) producers. BYD Auto
and other Chinese brands are starting to
sell in developed markets including Europe
and Japan. Chinese battery supplier CATL
has set up a factory in Germany to supply
automaker BMW.
“We want China to make investments
in France in electric vehicles,” Le Maire
said. “In the climate transition, there is a
place for Chinese investment in France,
which allows us to reinforce our economic
relations and also speed up action against
global warming.”
The talks were overshadowed by Russia’s
war against Ukraine and complaints
China might be helping Moscow evade
Western sanctions, but Le Maire said
he didn’t discuss the war with Chinese
officials. However, he said it was in Beijing’s
interest to end the 17-month-old war.
President Emmanuel Macron’s security
adviser, Emmanuel Bonne, said China was
delivering “military equipment” to Russia
but gave no details.
“I want to make very clear that we want
this war to go to an end as soon as
possible,” Le Maire said. “Indeed, (it is) in
the interest of China, it is in the interests of
the global growth to have peace as soon as
possible.”
Le Maire also defended French controls on
technology exports and foreign investment
in the high-tech industry. French
authorities are investigating two Chinese
citizens associated with chip producer
Ommic who the newspaper Le Parisien said
face possible charges of exporting chips to
a Chinese armaments maker using forged
documents.
French counter-espionage officials believe
a Chinese investor who bought control
of Ommic in 2018 was trying to transfer
chip manufacturing technology to China,
according to the newspaper. The ruling
Communist Party is trying to develop its
own chip industry, but Washington has
blocked access to advanced manufacturing
tools and persuaded allies Japan and
the Netherlands to impose their own
restrictions.
Chinese authorities complain their
companies are unfairly targeted by
restrictions on access to foreign technology.
They have warned curbs on access to
semiconductors will disrupt smartphones
and other industries.
“Everybody can understand that France
wants to protect its key technologies,” Le
Maire said. “We don’t want any foreign
country to get access to those French
sovereign technologies.”
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