Republican members of the US Congress have asked Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to boycott a French catering firm that is supplying food to US marines.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
The caterer, Sodexho, which is an American subsidiary of French company Sodexho Alliance, has recently signed an eight-year contract with the Marine Corps, worth US$881m.
“My colleagues and I abhor the idea of continuing to pour American dollars into a French-based firm when those dollars could be feeding our wartime economy,” wrote Representative Jack Kingston, a Georgia Republican, as quoted by BBC News Online.
Kingston, who is trying to get more signatures before sending a letter to Rumsfeld, said the contract should be terminated in order to send “a tangible signal to the French Government that there are economic consequences associated with their international policies”.
A Sodexho spokeswoman said that terminating the company’s contract with the marines would not make the French Government change their mind on the subject of the war in Iraq.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalData“The Marine Corps has got a lot on its plate right now. They have got more important things on their mind,” the spokeswoman was quoted by BBC News Online as saying.
“We like to put stuff on their plate. Not issues though, just good food,” she added.
Matthew McLaughlin, a spokesman for the Marine Corps, said the corps “is going to fulfil its obligations of the contract”.
