Trump threatens France with 100% wine tariffs unless it drops its tax on U.S. tech companies

"I asked him not to charge American companies, and if they do, I have no choice but to charge a 100% tariff on all champagnes and all wines coming out of France," Trump said of French President Emmanuel Macron in an interview with The New York Post published Monday. "All [Macron] has to do is get rid of the sales tax, and he wouldn't have that kind of pressure."

Trump said he delivered the ultimatum to Macron directly, setting up a confrontation at the G7 summit underway in Évian-les-Bains, France, which runs through Wednesday.

Enacted in 2019, France's GAFAM tax — named for the initials of the tech giants it targets — charges Alphabet $GOOGL, Amazon $AMZN, Meta $META, Apple $AAPL, and similar large platforms 3% on the revenues they earn within French borders. Taxing gross revenue rather than net earnings means American technology companies bear a disproportionate share of the burden; the French finance ministry put the levy's total haul last year at roughly $700 million.

American buyers absorb roughly a fifth of all French wine sold worldwide, a market the Post puts at more than $2 billion a year. Data from France's customs authority, compiled by the American Association of Wine Economists and cited by CNBC, showed the dollar value of French wine shipped to the U.S. dropped 15.9% in 2025, sliding to 1.9 billion euros from 2.4 billion euros the previous year. The American Association of Wine Economists stopped short of attributing the drop to any single cause, the outlet noted, saying existing duties and a general consumer move toward more affordable options could each be responsible.

The 100% figure is not new — a formal inquiry launched by the U.S. Trade Representative in 2019 in response to the original French levy first put that duty level on the table. In January, Trump had also cited a 200% tariff on French wines and champagne in a separate dispute.

The warning contradicts a claim made last week by the Élysée Palace that the two countries had resolved the tech tax dispute. A U.S. official dismissed that account as "not accurate."

Asked for comment, White House spokesman Kush Desai directed the Post to a presidential memo Trump signed in February 2025, which declared that U.S. companies would no longer be allowed to "prop up failed foreign economies through extortive fines and taxes." Among G7 peers, Canada abandoned its comparable digital tax last year once Washington walked away from bilateral trade negotiations, and reports indicate Italy may follow suit.