Trump threatened France with 100% wine duties: he's not happy with IT tax
French wine is subject to a 15% duty in the U.S. / Photo: Unsplash/Liv Kao
US President Donald Trump has warned France that the US will have "no choice" but to impose duties of 100% on French wine if Paris does not exempt US tech giants from a digital tax. Trump stated this in an interview with the New York Post.
Trump said he made his demand directly to French President Emmanuel Macron: eliminate the 3% digital tax on U.S. companies or face import fees in the U.S. market, which brings in more than $2 billion a year for French winemaking - about a fifth of sales, according to the NY Post.
"All [Macron] has to do is get rid of the sales tax and he won't have to face that kind of pressure," Trump said.
The White House and the Elysee Palace did not respond to Reuters' request for comment.
The U.S. demand became known before the start of the G7 summit in the French city of Evian-les-Bains (located on the French shore of Lake Geneva), which Trump is expected to attend. For Macron, the summit will be a "diplomatic end" to his second and final term, which expires next year, according to Reuters.
Alcohol is one of the main export products from the European Union to the U.S.: in 2024, the volume of shipments amounted to about €9 billion, Reuters cited data from Eurostat. Currently, wines and alcoholic beverages from the EU are subject to a 15% duty in the US.
A French tax of 3% will be levied from 2019 onwards on revenue from digital services in France. Companies with sales above €25 million domestically and €750 million globally pay the tax.
This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor
