Ancient Observor:
or once, the French are not the only obstacles in this arena.
The FAA are a much bigger obstacle. Because they are charged with "Promoting" USA/American Aviation, they often speak with a very forked tongue.
If the FAA actually insisted that the USA airlines and pilots and atc actually followed ICAO rules, the political fallout in the USA would be against the FAA - and being good bureaucrats, they are keener on their jobs than they are on this aspect of International safety.
That's why we have TERPs instead of the superior PANS-OPs. That was driven by the airlines, not the FAA.
Also, we don't have MVA charts for pilots unlike many other countires. That is because of the controllers' union and FAA air traffic management.
Having said all that, with my company at least, when a pilot bid international operations, the company did a decent job of teaching how to do things properly "over there." The experienced international line check airman filled in the gaps.