France Ready To Take US Trade Dispute To WTO - Finance Minister

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th December, 2019) France is ready to take its trade dispute with the United States to the World Trade Organization (WTO) if the US goes through with his threat to slap tariffs on French imports in retaliation to French taxation of US tech giants, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Sunday.

"We are ready to take this to an international court, notably the WTO, because the national tax on digital companies touches U.S. companies in the same way as EU or French companies or Chinese. It is not discriminatory," Le Maire said to France 3 television.

On Monday, the Office of the US Trade Representative said that France's decision to impose the 3 percent digital tax � a step that obviously targets US heavyweights Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and microsoft � was discriminatory. The US trade authorities suggested taxes of up to 100 percent on certain French products, including cheese, wine, handbags and lipstick.

US President Donald Trump, unlike his predecessors, has not shied away from dictating and renegotiating trade terms with allies and adversaries alike. In October, the US imposed tariffs on $7.5 billion worth of European imports over a dispute with the European Union on airplane manufacture subsidies. The dispute had been ongoing since 2005, but neither George W. Bush or Barack Obama took any steps against the allied trade bloc during their presidential terms.