U.S. threatens tariffs on French cheese, champagne

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s administration proposed Monday slapping stiff tariffs on $2.four billion in French merchandise together with cheese and champagne in retaliation for France’s new digital companies tax.

In a report launched simply hours earlier than Trump is scheduled to fulfill with French President Emmanuel Macron in London, the U.S. Commerce Representatives’ Workplace stated tariffs of as a lot as 100 p.c are into account as a result of France’s digital companies tax discriminates in opposition to U.S. firms equivalent to Google, Apple, Fb and Amazon.

The choice “sends a {clear} sign that the US will take motion in opposition to digital tax regimes that discriminate or in any other case impose undue burdens on U.S. firms,” Ambassador Robert Lighthizer stated in an announcement.

Lighthizer stated the Trump administration is also contemplating opening investigations into digital companies taxes of Austria, Italy and Turkey.

France’s digital companies tax has been a flash level between the France and the U.S. because it was accepted final July. The three p.c levy can be positioned on yearly revenues of firms that present companies in France and have international revenues of no less than 25 million euros ($28 million) in France and 750 euros ($837 million) worldwide yearly.