By David Lawder and Andrea Shalal
By David Lawder and Andrea Shalal
WASHINGTON, Dec 2 (Reuters) – The U.S. authorities on Monday stated it could slap punitive duties of as much as 100% on $2.four billion in imports of French Champagne, purses, cheese and different merchandise, after concluding that France’s new digital companies tax would hurt U.S. tech corporations.
The U.S. Commerce Consultant’s workplace stated its “Part 301” investigation discovered that the French tax was “inconsistent with prevailing rules of worldwide tax coverage, and is unusually burdensome for affected U.S. corporations”, together with Alphabet Inc’s Google GOOGL.O, Fb Inc FB.O, Apple IncAAPL.O and Amazon.com IncAMZN.O.
U.S. Commerce Consultant Robert Lighthizer stated the U.S. authorities was additionally exploring whether or not to open comparable investigations into the digital companies taxes of Austria, Italy and Turkey.
“The USTR is targeted on countering the rising protectionism of EU member states, which unfairly targets U.S. corporations, whether or not by digital companies taxes or different efforts that concentrate on main U.S. digital companies…