Trump administration to announce, but defer, retaliation over French digital tax: USTR

Administration says tax discriminates against U.S. tech firms

WASHINGTON  - The Trump administration will announce actions against France over its digital services tax but will defer them while France defers tax collections from U.S. technology firms, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said on Thursday.

TECH GIANTS COULD FACE HEFTY TAX BILL UNDER NEW OECD PROPOSAL

The actions, expected by industry to be announced on Friday, are tied to a U.S. Section 301 probe into France's digital tax, which Washington says discriminates against U.S. tech firms such as Google, Facebook  and Apple Inc .

Ticker Security Last Change Change %
GOOGL ALPHABET INC. 150.80 -0.07 -0.05%
FB n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a.
AAPL APPLE INC. 171.48 -1.83 -1.06%

The United States last month withdrew from multilateral talks to reach a global solution on digital services taxation, citing a lack of progress in the negotiations.

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"We’re going to announce that we’re going to be taking certain sanctions against France, suspending them like they’re suspending collection of the taxes right now," Lighthizer told an online event hosted by the London-based Chatham House think tank.

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