Policy paper

Joint Statement: UK-France Industrial Strategy Partnership

Published 11 July 2025

Joint statement by Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jonathan Reynolds, Secretary of State for Business and Trade of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Eric Lombard, Minister of Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty of the French Republic, and Marc Ferracci, Minister for Industry and Energy of the French Republic

The Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Secretary of State for Business and Trade of the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the Minister of Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty and the Minister for Industry and Energy of the French Republic

wishing to strengthen bilateral relations between the French Republic and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland,

declare the following:

Today our governments have announced an Industrial Strategy Partnership. This partnership offers an opportunity to grow key sectors for the green and digital transition, build our economic resilience and share knowledge and best practice to drive economic growth and innovation.

The United Kingdom (UK) and France are global economies founded on stability, fairness, and the rule of law, and propelled by world-leading sectors and companies. We both have a record of extraordinary research and innovation; we are champions of openness and free trade; and are two of the leading magnets for international talent and capital in Europe. We are key investors in each other’s economies, and in 2024 our trading relationship was worth over £100 billion.

And we face the same challenges in the pursuit of economic growth in the context of rising geopolitical instability, an increasingly volatile trading environment, and the impacts of climate change on energy geopolitics, production and supply chains resilience.

Now more than ever, businesses are seeking out countries that can provide them with stability and the confidence to invest and grow. Faced with similar challenges, and notwithstanding the depth of our existing collaboration and breadth of our existing trading relationship, we state clearly our intention to go further together to boost mutually beneficial, secure and resilient growth, and to provide certainty for our businesses.

This Industrial Strategy Partnership could harness the drive and ambition presented in the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy 2025 and the French investment plan, France 2030. It will build on the deep and impactful collaboration which already exists between the UK and France on economic policy, including in the areas of supply chains, economic security, decarbonisation and support to small and medium sized business (‘SMEs’). This close working has already facilitated the planning of concrete exercises, such as the stress test on semi-conductors carried out in January of this year.

We propose to focus our enhanced collaboration on complementary strengths in frontier industries to build greater economic resilience and growth opportunities in regions across the UK and France. It is proposed that our partnership include, but will not be limited to, collaboration in the pillars of Technology, Clean Energy Industries and Advanced Manufacturing.

We declare our intention to carry out the following actions to give concrete expression to our co-operation:

• cross-cutting – Industrial Strategy councils: the UK’s and France’s respective industrial strategy councils (UK: Industrial Strategy Advisory Council and France: Conseil National de l’Industrie) to continue to engage with each other to share best practice, following on from the Directorate-General for Enterprise-Department for Business and Trade Dialogue
• carbon capture, utilisation and storage: drawing up a joint roadmap based on the initial phase of joint planning towards closer co-operation in order to continue exchanging best practice
• critical minerals: strengthening co-operation to secure supply chains
• critical dependencies: sharing our priority sectors of interest and methodologies for supply chain analysis and mapping
• artificial intelligence: supporting the adoption of AI solutions in SMEs. This includes collaborating on the most effective means of delivering our ambitious level of upskilling workers at the pace and scale required to support SME workers to transition to an AI-enabled economy

To ensure focus on delivery, we propose that the annual Dialogue between the UK Department for Business and Trade and the French Directorate-General for Enterprise of the French Ministry for Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty take on a new Industrial Strategy Partnership oversight role. We want this delivery focus to be boosted by the addition of a Ministerial bilateral as part of the Dialogue.

We will strive to develop a joint roadmap to deepen and sustain our collaboration, including support for investment in each other’s economies and identifying opportunities for collaboration in third markets.

At the core of the partnership is a strong and central role for industry. We will strive to build on the existing UK-France Business Forum bringing together government and the most important businesses and business organisations in our bilateral relationship.

This Joint Statement does not create any rights or obligations under international law.

In London, on 10 July 2025.