Recently, there was a tense meeting at the World Economic forum in Davos, Switzerland, and at center stage was a potential dispute between France and the United States. The US (specifically President Trump) expressed their displeasure over France's recent tax on digital services, affecting mainly US companies like Amazon, Facebook, and Google. The United States planned a response with $2.4 billion in potential taxes on French champagne and other luxuries.
This was all resolved on January 19th, with a truce of sorts between the two countries cancelling any taxes or tariffs between each other. But this did not stop any further issues. The US pressured the British government that any similar digital tax that was proposed similar to the French would not go unpunished. Britain then announced they would negotiate trade talks with the European Union before the States. With deals to formalize with China, and then Canada and Mexico, it is interesting to wonder how free these trade deals are with the leverage the American government has been attempting to use for their own benefit.
https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2020/01/25/despite-a-truce-us-eu-trade-relations-are-still-tense
2 comments:
This was an interesting story to watch considering how large the two economies both are, as well as how they both are incredibly connected to the rest of the world. Now they are both allowed to continue on with the free trade and did not cause any issues that should linger. The deals that are upcoming will hopefully work out this same way because both countries benefit here.
The relationship between the UK and the US in terms economic negotiations is very interesting, especially now that the UK is transitioning out of the EU. Im hesitant to think that the tension will dissipate anytime soon, but I am hopeful for potential positive development regarding trade between the UK and US.
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