The U.S. State Department is seeking to quell a diplomatic tempest roiling Europe this week after American embassies in several countries sent letters to foreign contractors instructing them to certify their compliance with President Trump’s policies aimed at unraveling diversity programs.
The letters, directed at companies in France, Spain, Denmark, Belgium and elsewhere that have contracts with the U.S. government, rankled European companies and officials, who are pushing back at what they described as a pressure campaign by the Trump administration to impose anti-diversity policies abroad.
Late Tuesday, the State Department tried to walk back the letters, saying that the compliance requirement applies to companies only if they were “controlled by a U.S. employer” and employ U.S. citizens. That contradicted the details in the embassy letters, which said that Mr. Trump’s D.E.I.-quashing orders applied to all suppliers and contractors of the U.S. government, regardless of their nationality and the country in which they operate.
The State Department’s statement repeated much of the letters’ content. It said that American embassies and missions worldwide were reviewing their contracts and grants to ensure that they were consistent with an executive order Mr. Trump signed the day after taking office. The order instructs federal contractors not to engage in diversity, equity and inclusion programs, which it described as “illegal discrimination.”
The State Department said that the embassy letter “only asks contractors and grantees around the world to certify their compliance with applicable U.S. federal anti-discrimination laws.”
“There is no ‘verification’ required beyond asking contractors and grantees to self-certify their compliance’,” its statement said. “In other words, we are just asking them to complete one additional piece of paperwork.”
The embassy letters are the latest action by the Trump administration to unnerve European officials, who are already on edge over a trade war as Mr. Trump prepares on Wednesday to unveil potentially punishing levies on countries around the globe, including America’s largest trading partners.
It was not immediately clear how many companies in Europe received a letter or whether it was enforceable. But in Belgium, the government said it had lodged a protest with the U.S. embassy and said it was “concerned that the United States is pressuring European companies” to abandon their diversity, equality and inclusion programs.
“The U.S. Embassy must comply with Belgian law in its actions,” Maxime Prévot, Belgium’s deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, said in a statement on Tuesday. “If contracts were to be terminated solely because a company is committed to diversity and inclusion, this could constitute a violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.”
Mr. Trump’s D.E.I. orders have sown fear and confusion among corporate leaders in the United States. But the Trump administration’s efforts to impose its policies on Europe-based workforces have been met with resistance in places like Italy that have long had strong labor laws favoring workers’ rights.
Companies across Europe have worked for years to increase the presence of women, members of minority groups and employees with disabilities, generally broadening their workforces to reflect the makeup of their society.
In Denmark, where companies also received the letter, Morten Bødskov, the industry minister, said on Wednesday that Danish and European companies took “great responsibility for diversity,” and European rules are designed to “enhance companies’ responsibility for the society they are part of.”
Companies must comply with local laws where they operate, but “there is no reason to hide the fact that this can only be seen as yet another attempt at an American trade barrier,” Mr. Bødskov said in a statement, adding that a response would be “discussed with our European colleagues.”
In France, companies that received the letter expressed their dismay during a meeting with French government officials last week. The missive had the effect of whipping up a rare united front of government, corporate and French labor union leaders.
France’s foreign trade minister, Laurent Saint-Martin, vowed to shield companies from the U.S. policy, which he said was tantamount to asking them to renounce diversity policies that complied with French or European law.
Patrick Martin, the president of France’s biggest employers association, Medef, said French companies “cannot give in,” and that President Trump was seeking “a grip on the global economy and European values.”
And the C.F.D.T., the leading trade union in France, called on French companies “to resist this intimidation and not to fill out the form,” which the group said would be “synonymous with submission to the Trump administration.”
