President Donald Trump promised on Friday to retaliate against France for adopting a pioneering tax on internet giants like Google, Amazon and Facebook.
He also managed to get in a shot at French wine. Trump, who doesn’t drink alcohol, tweeted: “I’ve always said American wine is better than French wine!”
The digital tax primarily targets companies that use consumer data to sell online advertising. The tax is designed to stop multinationals from avoiding taxes by setting up headquarters in low-tax European Union countries. Currently, the companies pay nearly no tax in countries where they have significant sales.
https://apnews.com/a4e811bd0d3b428dac7a93b4cde67aea
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French wine vs US tech prowess: new Trump-Macron standoff
France is pushing ahead with a landmark tax on tech companies like Google and Facebook despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats of retaliatory tariffs on French wine.
That’s rattling French vintners, who sold 1.6 billion euros ($1.78 billion) worth of wine last year to American consumers. But neither Trump nor French President Emmanuel Macron appears ready to back down.
https://apnews.com/901c1099ba5b482a848a90834309ecda
France urges Trump: 'Don't mix digital taxes and wine tariffs'
Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Saturday that France would proceed with taxing revenues of big technology firms and urged the United States not to bring trade tariffs into the debate on how to fairly raise levies on digital services.
https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-france/france-urges-trump-dont-mix-digital-taxes-and-wine-tariffs-idUKKCN1UM0DF