GOOGL - U.S. suspends French tariffs over digital service tax

The U.S. has backed off a threat to slap tariffs of 25% on French luxury goods, valued at around $1.3B annually, in response to France's digital service tax ((DST)) on companies like Google ([[GOOG]], [[GOOGL]]), Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN) and Facebook (FB). The suspension was welcomed by U.S. importers and retailers that had criticized such punitive tariffs as a tool that aims to protect one industry at the expense of another, while hurting American consumers.Backdrop: In August 2019, President Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron reached a deal by promising that the French government would scrap the French tax as soon as the OECD found a way to properly tax tech companies. In December 2019, the U.S. promised 100% tariffs on French wine, cheese and handbags because the previous deal wasn't good enough, while in January 2020, the two sides agreed to wait a little bit to see if the

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U.S. suspends French tariffs over digital service tax