Macron maintains France will not bend to Trump over digital tax

By John Irish and Sybille de La Hamaide

EVIAN-LES-BAINS, France, June 15 (Reuters) - President Emmanuel Macron said France would not bow to pressure from President Donald Trump and scrap its digital tax on U.S. tech giants, hours before the two meet at a summit on Monday.

Before setting off for the G7 leaders summit, which Macron is hosting on the shores of Lake Geneva, Trump warned that the U.S. would "have no choice" but to apply 100% tariffs on French wine unless Paris eliminated its digital tax.

Trump told the New York Post he had delivered the warning directly to Macron, demanding he remove the 3% tax on U.S. tech giants or face duties in the American market.

"All (Macron) has to do is get rid of the sales tax, and he wouldn't have that kind of pressure," Trump was quoted as saying by the newspaper. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the New York Post article. 

Macron told French television channel TF1 that "tariffs don't do anyone any good, especially tariffs between G7 countries". Asked if he would yield to the tariff threats, he responded: "No, because that is not how it works."

PAST THREATS

France has applied a 3% levy since 2019 on revenue from digital services earned by companies with revenues of more than €25 million in the country and €750 million worldwide.     

French wine and spirits exporters said the latest U.S. threat was bad news for an export-dependent industry caught in a dispute beyond its control and urged responsible action.

Trump has threatened a 200% tariff on wine and other alcoholic beverages imported from France and the European Union before, including in January this year and last year in March.

He will take part in the gathering of the Group of Seven wealthy nations at a time when global leaders are increasingly wary of the United States. 

For Macron the summit is a diplomatic capstone for his second and final term in office, which ends next year.

Alcohol is among the EU's top exports to the U.S., worth about €9 billion in 2024, according to Eurostat data, with products like Remy Martin cognac and champagne required to be produced in specific European regions.

Wines and spirits exported to the U.S. from the EU currently face a 15% tariff, a rate the French have been lobbying to cut to zero since Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen agreed a U.S.-EU trade deal in Scotland last summer.

($1 = 0.8607 euros) 

(Reporting by Chandni Shah in Bengaluru, John Irish in Evian-les-Bains, Sudip Kar-Gupta in Brussels and Sybille de La Hamaide in Paris; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus, Kim Coghill, Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Alexander Smith)