The move, which includes cheese, handbags and porcelain, is in response to France’s new digital services tax (DST). U.S. officials say the tax unfairly targets U.S. companies such as Apple Inc. and Google. The French tax is a 3% levy on revenue tech companies reap in France from targeted advertising or running a digital marketplace.
The U.S. Trade Representative’s office said the DST applies largely to services where U.S. companies re dominant and doesn’t tax services where French companies are more successful.
“Statements by French officials responsible for proposing and enacting the French DST show that the law deliberately targets U.S. companies,” the USTR’s office said. It added that French officials “repeatedly referred to the French DST as the ‘GAFA tax,’ which stands for Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon.”
Saying the U.S. action “sends a clear signal that the United States will take action against digital tax regimes that discriminate or otherwise impose undue burdens on U.S. companies,” the USTR threatened such tariffs could extend to Austria, Italy and Turkey, which also have DSTs.
USTR said it will hold a public hearing on the proposed tariffs Jan 7 and would accept public comment through Jan. 14.
In a separate action, President Trump said he will raise tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Brazil and Argentine.
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Monday, before the USTR report was released, “We will never, never, never abandon our will to tax fairly tech giants.”