Politics

Trump Threatens Retaliation Over France’s Digital Tax

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President Donald Trump said Friday the U.S. will hit back after French President Emmanuel Macron imposed a 3% tax on digital companies like Facebook and Amazon.

“France just put a digital tax on our great American technology companies. If anybody taxes them, it should be their home Country, the USA. We will announce a substantial reciprocal action on Macron’s foolishness shortly. I’ve always said American wine is better than French wine!” Trump wrote Friday on Twitter.

France just put a digital tax on our great American technology companies. If anybody taxes them, it should be their home Country, the USA. We will announce a substantial reciprocal action on Macron’s foolishness shortly. I’ve always said American wine is better than French wine!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2019

Macron signed the law Wednesday, and the new tax will apply to companies with at least 750 million euros, or about $834 million, in global revenue and a digital revenue of 25 million euros, or roughly $27 million, in France from activities like targeted advertising, reported Bloomberg Tax. Other countries including Austria, Italy, the United Kingdom, Poland and the Czech Republic are reportedly considering levying similar taxes.

French lawmakers passed the law earlier in July, prompting the U.S. to promise to investigate France for unreasonably discriminating against U.S. businesses.

U.S. companies spoke out against the tax.

“We applaud the Trump Administration for taking decisive action against France and for signaling to all of America’s trading partners that the U.S. government will not acquiesce to tax and trade policies that discriminate against American businesses,” Amazon said according to The Washington Post.

Google called the tax “discriminatory.”