U.S. Suspends Plan to Impose Tariffs on French Luxury Goods -- Update
January 07 2021 - 1:45PM
Dow Jones News
By Yuka Hayashi
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Trade Representative said Thursday it had
suspended plans to impose tariffs of 25% on French luxury goods
related to a dispute over France's digital-services tax, citing
investigations into digital services taxes in 10 other
countries.
The proposed tariffs were announced last year, in retaliation
for digital services taxes on U.S. companies such as Facebook Inc.
and Alphabet Inc., and had been scheduled to take effect
Wednesday.
The USTR's decision leaves the incoming Biden administration to
come up with a solution for the growing dispute with countries from
around the world that increasingly want global technology companies
to pay more taxes where their customers are located.
In suspending the French tariffs, the USTR said its
investigations into digital-services taxes, or DSTsm in other
countries "have significantly progressed, but have not yet reached
a determination on possible trade actions."
"A suspension of the tariff action in the France DST
investigation will promote a coordinated response in all of the
ongoing DST investigations, " the USTR said in a statement.
The agency said it wasn't taking any specific actions for now
but would continue to evaluate "all available options."
Investigations into practices of the European Union, Austria,
Brazil, Czech Republic, Indonesia, Spain and the U.K. continue.
The suspended tariffs would have targeted a narrow list of
French products, including handbags, soap, and cosmetics such as
lipstick and nail polish.
The USTR, in a filing last year laying the groundwork for the
tariffs, said it was responding to the French tax, calling it an
"unreasonable or discriminatory" measure that "burdens or
restricts" U.S. commerce.
Write to Yuka Hayashi at yuka.hayashi@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 07, 2021 13:30 ET (18:30 GMT)
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