The letter sent by the US embassy in Paris to its major French suppliers asking them to get rid of any diversity policies, initially revealed on Friday, March 28 by the French newspaper Les Echos, has rightly caused a vast outcry. Patrice Martin, the president of MEDEF (France's largest employers' federation), described it as "inadmissible." The French ministry of foreign trade criticized the "unacceptable interference."

This is not the first time the US has attempted a moral takeover of French companies. Washington didn't wait for Donald Trump to be elected in order to play the world's sheriff, using embargoes and the fight against corruption. In 2014, BNP Paribas came under fire for operating in Sudan, Iran and Cuba despite US sanctions. The bank was fined €6.5 billion, which helped to bail out institutions in the US.

These lessons in probity have long been excellent business for the US, especially since it can claim to represent the side of good against the corrupt and war profiteers. But this time, by outlawing the DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) policies that are based on affirmative action, Uncle Sam is on the wrong side of history. Trump is defending an out-dated vision of merit that he now wants to impose on us, like our companies impose a ban on child labor on their supply chain. Yet the inclusion of minorities is as much an ethical imperative as it is a matter of economic efficiency, as many studies have shown.

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