US President Donald Trump condemned France on Friday for its recently passed digital services tax and threatened “a substantial reciprocal action”.
“France just put a digital tax on our great American technology companies. If anybody taxes them, it should be their home country, the USA,” Xinhua News quoted the US President as saying.
Trump further said, “We will announce a substantial reciprocal action on Macron’s foolishness shortly,” while referring to French President Emmanuel Macron.
“France’s unilateral measure appears to target innovative US technology firms that provide services in distinct sectors of the economy,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement.
The EU member states’ finance ministers have failed to agree on an EU-wide digital tax as Sweden, Denmark and Ireland opposed the Paris-backed plan. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries have also been working on a multilateral solution to incorporate digital tax into the international tax system.
The White House spokesman said that the French digital services tax law demonstrates the country’s “lack of commitment” to the ongoing OECD negotiations.
The French Senate passed the law two weeks ago that made France one of the first countries to impose a tax on digital giants.
Earlier this month, the tax bill was adopted by the National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament.