US still considering tariffs on French wine

The US is reportedly examining potential tariffs on a range of French goods, including wine, despite the issue having supposedly been dealt with last month.

This summer the US president, Donald Trump, threatened multiple tariffs on EU goods following revelations that EU countries had subsidised Airbus at the expense of its US competitor Boeing.

Trump was also annoyed at the 3% levy France imposed on digital companies – including big American ones such as Amazon and Facebook – back in July.

At the G7 conference in southern France late last month it appeared that American and European officials had reached an agreement that would avoid increased US tariffs on EU imports but this now seems to be up in the air again.

Bloomberg has reported that the US is continuing a probe (called ‘Section 301’) into a potential tax of French goods as a result of the country’s digital tax levy.

It is the same type of probe used by the US to impose levies on Chinese goods when those two countries began slapping additional tariffs on each other’s goods last year.

Depending on the probe’s findings, billions of dollars worth of French goods could be earmarked for additional import tariffs including wines, spirits and cheeses.