France and the U.S. have managed to avoid turning their recent trade skirmish into a war – for now. The dispute involves France’s decision last summer to unilaterally reach outside the United States-French tax treaty framework to tax U.S. tech companies like Google, Amazon, Facebook and Twitter. Calling the French tax an illegal trade practice, the U.S. vowed to retaliate with 100% tariffs on a broad range of French products. After talks in January, French President Emmanuel Macron and President Donald Trump appeared to reach a truce. France agreed to delay the digital tax until the end of the year, and the U.S. won’t impose more tariffs. The truce allows time for tax officials from nearly 140 countries including France and the U.S. to hammer out a deal to modernize the international tax system. On Jan. 31, they agreed to push ahead with negotiations to rewrite global cross-border tax rules by the end of the year.

So, for the moment, your brie and bordeaux are safe.

Citation
Ruth Mason, France-US skirmish over Amazon digital tax shows why the century-old international tax system is broken, The Conversation (January 31, 2020).