Overview
- President Trump told the New York Post on Monday that he will impose 100% tariffs on French wine and champagne unless France drops its 3% digital services tax aimed at large tech firms.
- Trump said he delivered the demand directly to President Emmanuel Macron and the White House pointed reporters to a February 2025 presidential memo that asked the U.S. Trade Representative and Treasury to consider reopening a formal probe of the French levy.
- France’s tax, enacted in 2019, targets gross revenue from large digital services for companies with thresholds of roughly €25 million in French revenue and €750 million globally and is widely seen in Washington as disadvantaging U.S. tech firms.
- The United States buys about one-fifth of French wine exports, roughly $2 billion a year, so a 100% tariff would markedly raise U.S. retail prices and hit French producers and luxury brands that rely on the American market.
- The threat revives a punitive tariff option first floated by USTR in 2019 and could force a transatlantic showdown at the G7, with other countries having taken different paths on digital taxes, including Canada’s repeal and the UK’s retention of its levy.