Washington (United States) (AFP) – US President Donald Trump threatened to set a 100 percent tariff on French wine and champagne unless Paris removes a digital services tax on technology firms, The New York Post reported Monday. France imposed in 2019 a three percent levy on the revenues earned by technology firms — including US giants like Facebook, Amazon, Apple, and Google’s parent Alphabet — within the country’s borders.
French President Emmanuel Macron is due to host Trump on Monday before the G7 summit gets underway at the spa resort of Evian on Lake Geneva. “We will have a respectful but firm discussion,” Macron told French television on Monday ahead of the meeting. “Tariffs don’t do anyone any good, especially tariffs between G7 countries,” Macron said, calling for trade “stability.” In the Post interview, Trump said he had asked Macron “not to charge American companies.”
“If they do, I have no choice but to charge a 100 percent tariff on all champagnes and all wines coming out of France,” he was quoted as saying. “All he has to do is get rid of the sales tax, and he wouldn’t have that kind of pressure,” he said of Macron. Gabriel Picard, president of the French Federation of Wine and Spirits Exporters (FEVS), called for preserving a “balanced and constructive trade relationship between France and the United States in the interest of both economies.”
The dispute “concerns issues that fall outside our scope of action, even though our companies could directly suffer the consequences… This new threat is bad news for our highly export-orientated sector,” Picard told AFP. The United States is the biggest importer of French wines and spirits, according to the FEVS, accounting for 21 percent of the overall export market last year. French and European wines exported to the United States already face a 15 percent tariff, up from an earlier 10 percent. FEVS said exports of French wines and spirits to the United States slumped by 21 percent last year.
– Repeated threats – According to the French customs agency, the United States imported 2.9 billion euros ($3.4 billion) of wines and spirits between May 2025 and April 2026, representing 18 percent of total exports. That made it by far the biggest single market for French producers, ahead of the UK (11 percent) and Germany (six percent). Champagne and cognac accounted for 40 percent of the export values, at around 600 million euros each. Red wines from Bordeaux were next, at 220 million euros, followed by whites from Burgundy at 170 million euros.
But some French regions are especially dependent on the US market. Producers of Loire Valley whites send 45 percent of their exports to the United States, and Beaujolais sends 30 percent, whereas just 16 percent of champagne exports go to the US market. In January, Trump threatened 200 percent tariffs on French wine over France’s intention to decline an invitation to join his “Board of Peace” aimed at resolving international conflicts. Canada decided to scrap its digital services tax last year in order to salvage trade talks with the United States, following pressure from Trump.
Proponents for special taxes on big tech firms say the goal is to force them to pay taxes where they carry out business, as well as to counter tax optimisation strategies. During his first term, Trump also threatened to set tariffs on US imports of champagne and French cheese.
© 2024 AFP
