U.S. considers 100% tariffs on French Champagne, cheese, handbags over digital tax

Why is the US government getting involved ? This has nothing to do with the US and even less with free trade agreements.

It's about making pay their fair share of taxes to the companies operating in France making money out of French citizens and evading taxes ...

"French champagne" is redundant.

You can't. All Champagne comes from France.

Must say that the notion of the DT administration protecting the likes of Google and Facebook from paying more tax is a bit odd.

Why? Protecting the wealthiest and hurting the unfortunate is the modus operandi of the Trump administration.

Hopefully more countries will follow Frances lead on this one, these corps dodge way too much tax.

I suppose the very concept of making tech companies pay any tax at all must seem shocking to American lawmakers.

Gotta side with France on this one.

The U.S. Trade Representative's office said its "Section 301" investigation found that the French tax was "inconsistent with prevailing principles of international tax policy, and is unusually burdensome for affected U.S. companies", including Alphabet Inc's Google, Facebook Inc, Apple Inc and Amazon.com Inc.

From the country that spent the last 3 years imposing tariffs on billions of dollars of products from different countries. Bullies are always the ones that whine the loudest.

Anyway, France will not lose any market. It will just move to China.

Meh. Let the Americans eat American cheese.

More quality cheese for the rest of us.

Bit sad if the only meaningful French exports to US they can think of penalizing are champagne, cheese and pricey handbags.

I guess we should expect sales of US bubbly (some of it not bad), US cheese (ditto) and US branded handbags (most of which are anyway manufactured in Asia) to go up......

Must say that the notion of the DT administration protecting the likes of Google and Facebook from paying more tax is a bit odd.

So it means that all the GAFA can enjoy to sell all over the world without paying any taxes or only in the tax heavens ?

Hope EU will apply equivalent tax amount to US.

Anyway , this Trump adminstration is completely unfair . We have to stop any kind of agreement with US as long as Trump  is President or as long as the same policy is applied.

What do they think they are ?

Ah, trade wars are "easy", according to Trump, so just have France likewise slap 100% on all US imports. They can get it all elsewhere, while the US suffers even more and farmers who proudly voted Trump commit suicide because of bankruptcy.

The rich will still drink their champagne and buy their luxury bags.

zichiToday 02:26 pm JST

The rich will still drink their champagne and buy their luxury bags.

Could even be counter productive, people buy those as a display of status; more expensive, higher status ...

Because he has consistently claimed that those companies have too much power and influence.

Donald Trump is dishonest. Even his most fervent supporters acknowledge that. The prime focus of Trump, and the Republicans, is to injure the poor and worship the wealthy. They're happiest if the wealthy are white, but their prime goal is to inflict misery on the most vulnerable people in the nation.

So both of these guys are wrong?

Yes.

Guess things must be heating up over in the Rayburn Building, where the impeachment investigation is going to be calling Trump's former attorney to give evidence. The SH seems to feel that any distraction at this point is helpful.

Sneezy

Because he has consistently claimed that those companies have too much power and influence.

Because all of the other trade wars are really paying off.

NO French champangene for Trump's impeachment and downfall! That is really a big pity!

So New Year’s is coming. A toast! Oh.... that’s right.... America is great again....

Ah, trade wars are "easy", according to Trump, so just have France likewise slap 100% on all US imports. They can get it all elsewhere,

Uh-Huh, where?

while the US suffers even more and farmers who proudly voted Trump commit suicide because of bankruptcy.

Lay off CNN, just a tad.

Why is the US government getting involved ? This has nothing to do with the US and even less with free trade agreements.

It's about making pay their fair share of taxes to the companies operating in France making money out of French citizens and evading taxes ...

So both of these guys are wrong?

"The French digital services tax is unreasonable, protectionist and discriminatory," Senators Charles Grassley and Ron Wyden, the top Republican and Democrat, respectively, on the Senate Finance Committee, said in a joint statement.

"The French digital services tax is unreasonable, protectionist and discriminatory," Senators Charles Grassley and Ron Wyden, the top Republican and Democrat, respectively, on the Senate Finance Committee, said in a joint statement.

Are they wrong?

Because all of the other trade wars are really paying off.

They really are! Have ye seen the latest numbers for the U.S. economy / median household income / stock market? Trump's doing something right! No wait, I keep forgetting, it's still the Obama economy!

Donald Trump is dishonest. Even his most fervent supporters acknowledge that.

No, we don’t think that, but we don’t think he’s perfect either. He is a mere mortal.

The prime focus of Trump, and the Republicans, is to injure the poor and worship the wealthy.

The wealthiest people in America are all liberals, liberals that support the wealthy and not the poor, you got it totally wrong.

They're happiest if the wealthy are white,

Which most of the richest people in America are, white, liberal and filthy rich.

but their prime goal is to inflict misery on the most vulnerable people in the nation.

The liberal States are doing a swell job at taking care of the poor, that’s why the homeless population is exploding.

Meh. Let the Americans eat American cheese. 

More quality cheese for the rest of us.

Actually, the Dutch can fill that void easily as well as the Germans, Swiss, Swedes and Danes, Italians and Greeks, we dominate the Cheddar field, so not getting French cheese is really not a big deal as long as we have these other countries to get tasty cheese from. Champagne....sigh, we can turn to the Brits...if it really comes to that.