French President Emmanuel Macron said Europe as a whole needs to be less economically beholden to the U.S. and China moving forward.
“This ordeal has exposed flaws and fragilities: our dependence to other continents to get our hands on some goods,” Macron said over the weekend in a national TV address, referring to the coronavirus pandemic. “I want us to draw all the lessons from what we have learned.”
France, the second largest economy in the European Union behind Germany, is beginning to reopen after being shuttered for more than two months because of the pandemic.
Macron during his address said that restaurants and cafes in Paris would be allowed to fully reopen on Monday, the Evening Standard reported. Despite the reopening, the French government has predicted France’s economy will constrict 11 percent this year.
The president noted that much of Europe relies heavily on China for important goods such as car parts, smart phones and pharmaceuticals. Those supply chains were decimated when the pandemic began in the Chinese city of Wuhan and as countries around the globe competed for the same limited medical products.
“The only answer is to build a new, stronger economic model, work and produce more, so as not to rely on others,” Macron said.