Three years after the Covid crisis, France increasingly dependent on China

Three years ago, in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis marked by massive orders for masks from China, France was determined to rebalance its trade, which was largely in deficit, with the second largest economic power in the world. But since then, nothing has changed. France is even more dependent on China today than it was before the lockdown. A situation that should animate future discussions between Emmanuel Macron and Xi Jinping. The French president begins a three-day state visit to China from Wednesday.

Exports at half mast

He will certainly mention this trade deficit vis-à-vis Beijing, which has been widening for three years. To the point of reaching almost 40 billion euros in 2022. France imports more and more products from the middle empire. For example, nearly six out of ten toys sold in France are “Made in China”. And producing drugs in France without resorting to Chinese imports has almost become an impossible mission, as Christian Saint-Étienne, an academic economist, reminds us. “Of the hundreds of tons or thousands of tons of active ingredients that we use, 60% come from India or China”.

To make matters worse, our exports to China fell last year, particularly in the food industry. In aeronautics, Airbus only sold 112 aircraft to Chinese customers in 2022 compared to 142 in 2021. Even sales of cosmetic products could soon run out of steam according to Philippe Le Corre, research professor at ESSEC. “It seems that the Chinese government is in the process of setting up means of control, higher taxes for foreign cosmetic products. It would be a big difficulty for a group like L’Oréal”. The only sector that resists: luxury, whose tricolor exports to Beijing have more than doubled over the last three years.