Economy minister Bruno Le Maire told the press that France is determined to implement the 3 percent tax on digital sales that will be presented to parliament later this month. The comment was made on the same day that US secretary of state Mike Pompeo called for the planned tax to be dropped, because of its negative impact on large US digital companies.
The statement from Pompeo follows the warning given in mid-March by US treasury official Chip Harter, who described the tax as "discriminatory" against US-based multinationals and said that the US was considering a complaint against it at the World Trade Organization.
On a conciliatory note, Le Maire said that France, like the US, firmly supported work at the OECD to find consensus on new digital tax rules. The French government has presented the tax as an interim measure, which would only remain in place until international reform was agreed.
