Trump: I stopped the trade war with France when I was president
Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, said that he avoided a “war” with France while in office, alluding to a trade war rather than a military confrontation.
“What I did at the White House is unknown to you. Trump told fans at a rally in Duluth, Georgia, on Wednesday, “I stopped wars.” “With France. Do you know the story of France? Think of this: 25% of all Americans will be charged. I have to defend American businesses whether I like them or not, some of which I may not even like,” Trump said.
Trump did not specify what France want to tax, but it seems likely that he was alluding to a trade spat between Paris and Washington during his administration that included tariffs and taxes.
In 2019, France attempted to impose taxes on major American internet companies, such as Google and Facebook, for their operations in France. Trump referred to the idea as “foolish” at the time, and the United States responded by imposing a 100% duty on French handbags and cheese.
Trump then shifted his focus to Google in his address on Wednesday, suggesting that he had previously mentioned France’s tech tax. Google has often been accused by Trump of unjustly favoring unfavorable articles about him in its search results.
“I didn’t like it at all. We’re getting considerably better treatment from Google, you know. Have you noticed that? How did Google fare? We’re getting considerably better treatment from them. Excellent,” Trump said.
“Thank you very much for that. He said, “They say McDonald’s was one of the most viewed things that they’ve ever had,” most likely alluding to Trump’s recent campaign photo op in which he spent fifteen minutes operating the fryer at a closed McDonald’s in Pennsylvania, producing pictures that went viral.
The long-running conflict between the United States and Europe, mainly over rival aerospace behemoths Boeing and Airbus, was the subject of the trade issues Trump was ostensibly alluding to in his address.
Trump’s administration intensified this trade war, which had been smoldering since the 1990s. After the United States accused Airbus of getting improper subsidies from European governments, the World Trade Organization ruled that the United States may retaliate by imposing taxes on European products.
The Trump administration imposed 25% tariffs on steel and a number of other European items in 2019, including French cheese and wine. Despite not drinking, he referred to American wine as “better than French wines” at the time.
Bruno Le Maire, the French finance minister at the time, referred to it as an unfair trade war.
“The war has already started,” he said in reaction to the activities of the United States.
In spite of Trump’s assertion that he “stopped wars,” France continues to impose a tariff on American technology companies. Since then, Joe Biden has declared a halt to many of the tariffs on European imports imposed by Trump.
