A general view shows a winemakers' fair, in Bordeaux, France, on March 13. PATRICE PIERROT/NEWSCOM
United States President Donald Trump has said he will "have no choice" but to impose a 100 percent tariff on wine imports from France unless the country does a U-turn on taxes imposed on big US technology companies, the third time he has made such a threat.
The 3-percent levy on companies such as Google, Amazon, and Facebook's owner Meta was approved by the French Senate in 2019, during Trump's first term of office, and drew his wrath then, when he targeted France's emblematic wine industry for the first time.
Trump threatened heavy levies on French wine and cheese, prompting then-finance minister Bruno Le Maire to say: "France is sovereign, and France decides its own tax rules. And this will continue to be the case."
Trump made threats a second time at the start of this year, when he said he would impose a 200-percent tariff on French wines and champagne unless French President Emmanuel Macron signed up for his Board of Peace initiative, which he declined to do, saying that its proposed remit "raises major questions, particularly regarding respect for the principles and structure of the United Nations, which under no circumstances can be called into question".
