Last week, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo's deputy, Bruno Julliard, announced that the French capital was cancelling its contract with LaFarge-Helcim, a French-Swiss building materials conglomerate, citing the company's readiness to work on the construction of a wall along the US-Mexico border.
Speaking to the city council, Hidalgo's deputy said that LaFarge invited unavoidable consequences by seeking to take part in Trump's "nefarious project."
"We will do without their services," he told the council members who promptly voted to back the decision.
LaFarge was the supplier of sand for "Paris Plages," a municipal project that turns the banks of the Seine River into an artificial beach every summer.
Lafarge-Holcim’s CEO, Eric Olsen, announced that his company is ready to support construction of Trump's wall several weeks ago, mainly as a supplier of cement with US operations in three border states.
At the time Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault expressed the French government's disapproval. Ayrault said that Lafarge "should reflect upon what its interests are. There are other clients who will be stunned by this. Lafarge says it doesn’t do politics. Very well, but I would say companies also have social and environmental responsibilities."
Lafarge-Holcim’s reputation was already in jeopardy before the border wall controversy. The company is under investigation for allegedly paying ISIL (Da'ech) protection money to keep its cement plant in Syria running.
The company conducted its own internal review and issued a press release with the findings a month ago.
Without naming ISIL or any other specific entity, Lafarge acknowledged that it paid “certain armed groups” and “sanctioned parties” in Syria for protection as the situation there deteriorated in 2013 and 2014.
If Lafarge is awarded the cement contract it seeks, it will be interesting to see whether these matters blow up in Trump’s face.