shrek

anantksundaram said:

Excellent. Let's see a tax on every Danone yogurt, Airbus plane, Schneider circuit breaker, bottle of champagne, Dior perfume, L'Oreal cosmetic, Air France ticket, and Michelin tire sold in the US.

I think that this will be illegal by WTO rules (and probably some US laws as well). If US wants to implement taxes in same fashion as France then tax should be implemented in non-discriminatory way:  to every  item in product group (not handpicking companies, brands, countries of origin etc). Tax can be levied based on price (for example every plane, sparkling wine or perfume which cost more than certain amount).

It would be surprising if US declares Danone yogurt as matter of national security, but you never know :-).

I don't see that this is somehow against US companies. Every company with more that 750 mln revenue must pay it. As article states among them are companies from other countries. As US is the largest economy in the world it's quite natural that there are more american companies among them.

I think that France as independent country have right to impose whatever taxes it chooses (in line with commitments given to EU, WTO, bilateral trade agreements etc).

Every European company which have meaningful sales revenue (in my country for example 40K euros per year) is subject to VAT (value added tax). Tax rate differ by countries and it can be as low as 7.7% ins Switzerland (not member of EU) and as high as 27% in Hungary, average is around 20%. Every company which is subject to VAT tax must pay this tax based on sales revenue. As always there are lot of details - you can deduct VAT you have paid to others and essentially (not counting labour cost) you have to pay this rate only on 'value added' (a.k.a margin/markup) part. You pay VAT on sales both to consumers and companies. Export is generally VAT free.

I don't see this tax hike (from 20% to 23% in France) something very significant nor aimed against US companies.

Tool like this on open market “make stealing iPhones great again”