War for technology: France wants an agreement with the United States on its digital tax

France wants to conclude an agreement with the United States on the tax imposed on the giants of technology, before the G7 meeting in late August, said the Minister of Economy, Bruno Le Mayor.

The minister reacted to the statements of US President Donald Trump, who on Friday called the French rate of "stupidity" President Emmanuel Macron, while threatened to raise tariffs on French wine.

"We want to work closely with our American friends to achieve a universal badessment of digital activities," Le Maire told reporters.

"We want between today and the end of August (date when G7 heads of state will meet in Biarritz, south-west France) reach an agreement"he added.

To this end, The Mayor had planned to meet this afternoon with his American counterpart, Secretary of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, to advance this initiative.

The Mayor recalled that the goal was reach agreement at the level of the countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) by the end of 2020.

The minister also stressed that "there is no will" that the French rate, called the Gafa tax, is serious only for large US technology companies.

"American, European or Chinese multinationals have a digital activity, sometimes without physical presence in a territory, and pay little or no tax," he said.

"This situation is not acceptable and we all have an interest in ensuring that digital activities around the world are taxed fairly," he said.

GAFA tax

GAFA, The acronym for Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple is a tax on large companies in the sector not on the profits, but on the turnover, in the expectation of a harmonization of standards at the level of the OECD.

The agreement implies that there is a minimum level of taxes discourage the possibility of countries embarking on a competition to determine who is cutting taxes the most to attract business and investment from digital multinationals.

This issue had generated disagreements between the United States, where most of the major technology platforms are based, and France, which had approved a tax on these companies this month.

The tax represents 3% of the turnover achieved in the European country by digital companies with a turnover exceeding 750 million euros, of which at least 25 million euros in La France.