Abstract (EN)

As in many other developed countries, international relocations are currently a very hot topic in France. This can be readily concluded from the number of articles devoted by the French newspapers to this subject in 2004, compared to the preceding years (Table 1). A heated debate already took place in the early 1990s, culminating with the reports of Arthuis and Devedjian in 19932. Recently, the new enlargement of the European Union to Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs hereafter) and the suppression of quotas on textile imports, especially from China, have resumed fears about international relocations, which are assumed causing both employment losses and deindustrialisation of the French economy.