CMA CGM’s recent $20 billion investment in U.S. logistics and shipbuilding appears to be already be taking heat within its own market.
French President Emmanuel Macron wants European businesses to take a breather from investing in the U.S., at least until President Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs have more clarification.
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“I think what’s important, and that’s all the work that must be done by sector, that the investments to come or investments announced in recent weeks should be suspended until things are clarified with the United States,” Macron said Thursday during a meeting with French industry representatives.
The CMA CGM venture is one of the prior major investments Macron likely referred to, alongside a $5 billion commitment made in January by Netherlands-headquartered automaker Stellantis. French electrical company Schneider Electric also said in March it would invest $700 million in the U.S.
Sourcing Journal reached out to CMA CGM.
Macron’s comments came a day after President Trump slapped the European Union with 20 percent import tariffs, which are expected to go into effect Wednesday. Baseline 10 percent duties on the E.U.—the same standard applied to the rest of the countries that were tariffed—went into effect Saturday.
“What would the message be of having big European players that invest billions in the American economy at the same time they are hitting us?” Macron said. “We must have collective solidarity.”
The E.U. has not established any directive of where its companies can conduct business in the wake of the “Liberation Day” tariffs, so the CMA CGM deal remains unaffected.
The logistics giant has made moves in the past that appeared to have political undertones. In 2022, it acquired a 75 percent stake in industrial logistics provider Gefco from Russian Railways after the start of the Russia-Ukraine war. To close that deal, the European Commission authorized an immediate purchase to avoid the deal being subject to international sanctions against the state-owned Russian Railways.
CMA CGM is also one of the few major container shipping lines that would sparingly make returns to the Red Sea, with the French Navy escorting its vessels before passing through the Suez Canal.
It remains to be seen if E.U.-based counterparts like Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, or conglomerates across other sectors, would avoid further U.S. investments.