French president Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday said he is considering scrapping the wealth tax and the tax shield to bring the country's tax system in line with Germany's and close the competitiveness gap with France's first trading partner in the euro zone.

Sarkozy said the wealth tax is causing capital to flow out of the country and companies to delocalise. He called for an harmonisation of France's tax system with Germany's, where the corporate tax is lower than in France but has a wider base.