France and EU ready to retaliate US penalty threat on $2.4 billion French goods

On Tuesday, December 3, the French government announced that the European Union and France are ready to retaliate if the United States proposed tariffs of up to 100 per cent on $2.4 billion worth French goods come into effect.

The Trump administration on Monday, December 2, announced to impose harsh penalties on France as its new digital services tax has taken a toll on the United States technology companies. Donald Trump said he would not allow France to take advantage of American companies and that the European Union treats the US very unfairly on trade.

Trump also said that he would impose aluminium and steel tariffs on imports from Brazil and Argentina, with an immediate effect.

However, French Minister Bruno Le Maire refused to accept the US charges and said the French tax did not discriminate against the American companies.

So, in case of any new tariffs from the US, the European Union would be ready to retaliate, said the minister. 

“It’s not worthy of an ally, and it’s not the behaviour we expect from the U.S. towards one of its main allies, France, and more generally, Europe,” said Le Maire in a statement on Tuesday.

France in July levied a 3% digital tax that applied to revenue from digital services earned by companies with more than 25 million euros ($27.86 million) of revenues from France and 750 million euros ($830 million) worldwide.