To be perfectly honest, there was no way an avowed capitalist from the US and a socialist French minister intent on protecting workers' rights were going to see eye to eye.

However, the flaming letter sent from Maurice "Morry" Taylor Jr, the head of the tyre company Titan International, to the French industry minister, Arnaud Montebourg, still revealed something of a culture shock.

Taylor, a 1996 US Republican presidential candidate, revealed he was no loss to the international diplomatic service in his letter to the minister, who had suggested he might like to take over a Goodyear tyre factory in the economically struggling industrial heartland of northern France, near Amiens.

"Do you think we're stupid?" Taylor wrote to Montebourg in the letter, which was made public on Wednesday. "I've visited this factory several times. The French workers are paid high wages but only work three hours. They have one hour for their lunch, they talk for three hours and they work for three hours. I said this directly to their union leaders; they replied that's the way it is in France.

"Sir, your letter suggests you would like to open discussions with Titan. You think we're that stupid? Titan has money and the knowhow to produce tyres. What does the crazy union have? It has the French government. The French farmer wants cheap tyres. He doesn't care if those tyres come from China or India or if those tyres are subsidised."

The broadside came after the French government, anxious to save jobs at Goodyear, initiated talks. Very quickly, Montebourg could see the takeover project was going nowhere and publicly hinted as much. Taylor went considerably further in his letter.

"Titan is going to buy Chinese or Indian tyres, pay less than €1 an hour to workers and export all the tyres that France needs," Taylor boasted. "In five years, Michelin won't be producing tyres in France.

"You can keep your so-called workers. Titan is not interested in the factory in North Amiens," concluded Michigan-born Taylor, nicknamed "The Grizz" and reputed to be hot-tempered and "rough-hewn", according to Forbes magazine.

Asked about the letter on Wednesday, Montebourg did not comment. "I do not want to harm France's interests," he said.

Goodyear announced at the end of January that it would be closing the North Amiens site, throwing 1,173 workers out of jobs. The company said it was "the only possible option after five years of unsuccessful negotiations".

Mickaël Wamen, a leader of the Confédération Générale du Travail union at Goodyear in North Amiens, called the letter "insulting". He told Europe 1 radio: "Mr Taylor is talking today about a factory he was praising a few weeks ago. Titan has had difficulty breaking into the European market, and it's not with comments like that that it will succeed."