After their three-hour day, the 'so-called' workers leave a tyre factory in northern France. Credit:PHILIPPE HUGUEN "How stupid do you think we are?" he asked at one point. "Titan is going to buy a Chinese tyre company or an Indian one, pay less than €1 per hour wage and ship all the tyres France needs," he said. "You can keep the so-called workers." As the leaked letter drew outrage in France, Mr Montebourg penned a scathing response, spelling out the reasons why France routinely ranks as a leading destination for companies to invest, beating China and India in mid-2012. "Can I remind you that Titan, the business you run, is 20 times smaller than Michelin, the French [tyre] technology leader with international influence, and 35 times less profitable," Mr Montebourg wrote, in a two-page letter in French.

Maurice "Morry" Taylor ... "How stupid do you think we are?" Credit:Reuters "This just shows the extent to which Titan could have learned and gained, enormously, from a presence in France." "Your extremist insults display a perfect ignorance of what our country is about," the minister said. Maurice "Morry" Taylor (left), boss of Titan International, with one of the hard working US employees at Titan's bull wheel facility in Quincy, Illinois. Credit:HANDOUT "Be assured that you can count on me to inspect your tyre imports with a redoubled zeal," he added.

In his letter, Mr Montebourg said Mr Taylor's comments were, "as extremist as they are insulting", illustrated his ignorance of France. Titan is going to buy a Chinese tyre company or an Indian one, pay less than €1 per hour wage and ship all the tires France needs. Union leaders also reacted furiously. CGT official Mickael Wamen said Mr Taylor belonged more "in an asylum" than in the boardroom of a multinational and noted his views were based on a visit to a troubled plant whose operations had been cut back. He said the union was planning to file a lawsuit in the United States against Goodyear and Titan over the closure of the plant. 'There's jobs in Australia'

Taylor later told news agency AFP that France was doomed. "I just came back from Australia and I met there young Frenchmen and women and young Spanish men and women who have moved there because they can get jobs down there and they're excited to build something," he said. "That's why in France pretty soon everybody will be sitting down in cafes sipping a glass of wine but they won't be making any money." It made no sense for anyone, not even the French to invest in France, he said. He warned that there will be a day when Michelin "won't be able to produce any tyre in France because it'll cost too much money.

"The Chinese pay them (workers) so much cheaper. Why do you think Michelin is putting factories there?" he said. The vicious exchange made for another public knock to France's business image after verbal attacks last year by Mr Montebourg on firms seeking to shut ailing industrial sites prompted international derision. Combined with concern over plans for a 75-per cent "millionaires' tax", Mr Montebourg's antics drove London Mayor Boris Johnson to tell an international business audience that it seemed France was being run by left-wing revolutionaries. Socialist President Francois Hollande may take some comfort in the view Mr Taylor expressed of Washington: "The US government is not much better than the French," he wrote, saying Western leaders were failing to halt state-subsidised Chinese exports. Two tough-talkers

The row has pitted an outspoken former anti-globalisation campaigner, the loose cannon of Mr Hollande's government, against a right-winger who revels in provocation and tough-talking. Proud of being "The Grizz" - his group's logo features a cartoon bear and its website opens to the roar of a grizzly - Mr Taylor has clashed with unions before and once suggested that a US judge was "smoking dope" after a ruling against his firm. He built up Illinois-based Titan over 23 years into a global brand in tyres for tractors and other off-road machinery and ran for the White House in the 1996 Republican primary, campaigning on a pro-business ticket. At that time, he admitted to being "abrasive" in order to "get the job done": "The politicians, they all want you to like them," he told an interviewer. "I don't care if people like me." To Mr Montebourg, the author of Kill All the Lawyers and Other Ways to Fix the Government wrote: "You're a politician so you don't want to rock the boat ... France will lose its industrial business because its government is more government." Mr Taylor's letter was a response to Paris having approached Titan as a possible buyer of US group Goodyear's Amiens Nord factory in northern France. Mr Montebourg told reporters earlier on Wednesday that he would put his answer in a letter. In it, he noted the United States is the No. 1 investor in France with 4200 US subsidiaries employing nearly half a million people in the country. He said those firms appreciated French productivity and savoir-faire and warned that Paris would fight others which exploit cheap labour.

Mr Montebourg has often lashed out at cheap imports of manufactured goods from low-wage countries such as China and last year told the boss of Indian steelmaker ArcelorMittal he was unwelcome in a spat over a shuttered plant in France. Despite having per-head productivity levels that rank among the best in Europe, economists blame France's rigid hiring and firing laws for a long industrial decline that has dented exports. Many also fault the country's 35-hour work week for diminishing competitiveness with Germany. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co's Amiens Nord plant employs 1250 people, who have been battling demands they work more shifts or accept layoffs. The site now faces closure. Talks last year with Titan over a possible rescue fell down after a failure to reach a deal with unions on voluntary redundancies. Mr Taylor accused France of being at fault. "Titan is the one with the money and the talent to produce tyres. What does the crazy union have? It has the French government."

Reuters, with AFP

