NEW YORK, June 15 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump threatened a 100 percent tariff on French wines and champagnes unless France removes its 3-percent digital services tax on U.S. tech companies, U.S. media reported on Monday.
Trump told the New York Post ahead of the summit of the Group of Seven (G7) that he has asked French President Emmanuel Macron "not to charge American companies," otherwise he would "have no choice but to charge a 100 percent tariff on all champagnes and all wines coming out of France."
The warning has raised the prospect of a renewed transatlantic trade clash as Trump heads to Evian-les-Bains, France, for the G7 summit.
Since 2019, France has enforced a 3-percent digital services tax on the revenues that large U.S. digital companies, including Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft, earn in France.
Alcohol is one of the European Union's top exports to the United States, worth about 9 billion euros (about 10.5 billion U.S. dollars) in 2024, according to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union (EU).
France will not give in "because that's not how it works. We have just concluded an agreement between Europe and the United States on tariffs," Macron told French public television channel TF1. "Now, we need stability," he said.
French wine and spirit exports to America currently face a 15-percent tariff. French officials have been lobbying to reduce the rate to zero since Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen agreed to a U.S.-EU trade deal in Scotland last summer. ■
