As the American authorities announced a record penalty on Monday against BNP Paribas
for violating United States rules on trading with blacklisted
countries, the French political establishment had an unusual reaction:
silence.
Thus writes
Liz Alderman in a New York Times story to which one is tempted to react to with biting irony: "So,
Messieurs les Français, you finally got him, the U.S. president you dreamed of — the one who like the visionary Europeans is against bankers and other dirty capitalist pigs. Ain'tcha happy?!" Having said that, we must remember that Obama's outstanding, second-to-none
smart diplomacy is nothing to laugh at.
American prosecutors obtained most of what they fought for, but
financial authorities here are warning of a potential negative
consequence for the United States.
The dollar clearing at
issue in the BNP Paribas case was conducted in the United States. But,
said a person with direct knowledge of the negotiations, there is
concern that using dollars in international trade could ‘‘trigger risks
even if you do things outside the United States, because one day the
dollar you used may be seen as an opening for an extraterritorial
application of U.S. legislation.’’
‘‘That means that
using the dollar is now perceived as less safe than before the episode,
and it will probably reinforce the willingness of many countries to
trade as much as possible in other currencies,’’ the person added.
Nor will the French
government easily forget the episode. French officials are still upset
that American prosecutors appeared to be imposing a standard of justice
on foreign banks that has not been applied to American financial
institutions. 
… ‘‘There is a perception that France was targeted,’’ the French official said.
… France could turn up
the heat on the United States on other fronts, especially in
negotiations underway on an American-European trade deal. ‘‘It will
probably mean that the French attitude will be even tougher,’’ said the
French official close to the discussions.
Intensifying French resistance to the deal could undermine the
European Commission’s
ability to champion trans-Atlantic trade, Famke Krumbmuller, a
London-based analyst for the Eurasia Group, wrote in a recent note to
clients. But those talks are only limping along as it is, and
increasingly look doubtful to advance significantly during the Obama
presidency.
Also unclear is how
the American action will ricochet at a European level. The European
Commission has already imposed hefty fines on
Microsoft and other large American technology companies for violating anti-trust behavior in Europe’s backyard.
Given that the
financial penalties by the American authorities against not only BNP,
but other European banks, have been eye-popping, ‘‘the temptation may be
there to also raise the level of the fines in Europe,’’ Mr. Godement
said, ‘‘and we could get into a kind of tit-for-tat war, which has the
added advantage of replenishing public coffers.’’
Whatever the softening
of the penalties, the BNP affair will sting in France. ‘‘This amounts
to targeting probably the closest ally that the U.S. has had in Europe
over the past four to five years,’’ Mr. Godement said. ‘‘It is very
disquieting.’’
