Macron says France will not bend to US on digital tax
President Emmanuel Macron said that France will not bow to the pressure of US President Donald Trump and will not lift the digital tax on US technology giants, hours before the two meet at the summit.
Before departing for the G7 leaders’ summit hosted by Macron on the shores of Lake Geneva, Trump warned that the United States “will have no choice” but to impose a 100 percent tariff on French wine unless authorities in Paris repeal the digital tax.
Trump told the New York Post that he delivered the warning directly to Macron, demanding that he remove the 3 percent tariff on US tech giants or face tariffs on the US market.
“All (Macron) has to do is get rid of the sales tax and he won’t be subject to that kind of pressure,” Trump said, according to the newspaper.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the New York Post article.
Macron told French television channel TF1 that “tariffs do no one any good, especially tariffs between the G7 countries.”
Asked if he would bow to tariff threats, he replied: “No, because that’s not how it works.”
Since 2019, France has imposed a 3 percent tax on the income from digital services of companies with more than 25 million euros ($41 million) in revenue in the country and more than 750 million euros worldwide.
French wine and spirits exporters said the latest US threat was bad news for an export-dependent industry caught in a dispute beyond its control and called for responsible action.
Trump had previously threatened to impose a 200 percent tariff on wine and other alcoholic beverages imported from France and the European Union, including in January this year and March last year.
For Macron, the G7 summit will be a diplomatic turning point in his second and final term in office, which ends next year.
Alcohol is among the EU’s biggest exports to the US, worth around 9 billion euros in 2024, according to Eurostat data, and products such as Remy Martin cognac and champagne must be produced in certain European regions.
Wines and spirits exported from the EU to the US currently face a 15 percent tariff; The French have been lobbying for this rate to be reduced to zero since Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen agreed on a US-EU trade deal in northern hemisphere Scotland last summer.
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