US Could Apply Tariffs On French Products

The U.S. is reportedly moving ahead with tariffs that could be as much as 100 percent on French products. U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron, however, had initially come to a deal on France’s tax on tech companies, according to reports.

The United States Trade Representative had published a report after an investigation into the French tax. And, in a separate announcement, it recommends new tariffs and notes there could be more probes into the digital taxes of Italy, Austria and Turkey.

The U.S. Trade Representative says, according to the report, “France’s Digital Services Tax (DST) discriminates against U.S. companies, is inconsistent with prevailing principles of international tax policy, and is unusually burdensome for affected U.S. companies.”

France had voted in favor of a new tax on tech giants earlier in 2019. And Trump had criticized France’s plans through social media. He wrote in a tweet over the summer, “France just put a digital tax on our great American technology companies. If anybody taxes them, it should be their home Country, the USA.”

The tax is designed specifically for tech firms that fall into two different areas. Those include advertising companies and marketplace firms. And, even though the tax isn’t reportedly created to target U.S. firms, it was noted that the “vast majority” of large tech firms operating in France are American.

In separate news, reports recently surfaced that the Czech government has approved a new 7 percent digital tax on global internet firms, which will reportedly be levied on revenues tied to Czech users across digital marketplaces, advertising and data sales.

The Czech tax is aimed at firms such as Google, Facebook and others that have over $750 million in global revenues, and $4.32 million turnover in the Czech market.  The business services must also reach a minimum of 200,000 accounts in the Czech market.