International relocation and deindustrialisation: some French perspectives

General public debates on international relocation in the EU-15 generally focus on the process in its narrow sense: a company closing a plant in one of EU-15 countries while simultaneously opening a plant in a low-wage emerging country where it will produce goods at lower costs to be offered on the same market as previously. We will consider here relocation processes in a broader sense: production relocation from ‘Northern’ countries to low-wage economies, initiated by a ‘Northern’ company choosing to locate or to outsource part of or all its production in a Southern area; a ‘Northern’ company leaving its ‘Northern’ supplier of intermediate consumption purchases for a supplier in a southern country; a ‘Northern’ company of the trade sector leaving a supplier in a ‘Northern country’ for a supplier in a southern country; a ‘Southern’ company winning market shares over ‘Northern’ companies, first in its domestic market, then in third countries and finally in ‘Northern’ countries themselves. International relocation processes are difficult both to measure and to stop (....).