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The Trump administration on Monday threatened to impose tariffs on up to $2.4 billion worth of French goods in a dispute over that country’s new digital services tax. It also said it could impose fees or restrictions on some French services. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said an investigation found that France's tax unfairly discriminates against big U.S. tech companies like Facebook, Google, Apple and Amazon, which dominate the digital services market. “USTR’s decision today sends a clear signal that the United States will take action against digital tax regimes that discriminate or otherwise impose undue burdens on U.S. companies,” U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a statement. Story Continued Below “Indeed, USTR is exploring whether to open Section 301 investigations into the digital services taxes of Austria, Italy, and Turkey. The USTR is focused on countering the growing protectionism of EU member states, which unfairly targets U.S

A bipartisan group of 25 senators is pressing the Trump administration to investigate the impact of a new program China is implementing to monitor the behavior of domestic and international companies that operate in the country. "What our country witnessed recently with respect to the National Basketball Association (NBA) over a tweet by one American team’s general manager is not an aberration, but the latest in a litany of attempts by China to deploy its state and economic power to bend American entities to its will," the lawmakers wrote in a letter sent today to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. China's so-called corporate social credit system will use an algorithmic system to collect data that will grade a company's contributions toward supporting China's economic system. The lawmakers said they worry it could be used to coerce U.S. companies to move research activities to China, hand over technology or support Chinese industrial and foreign

President Donald Trump needs two big achievements to keep markets and the economy as glittering assets in his challenging 2020 reelection bid: passage of a new NAFTA and a trade deal with China. But Democrats are stringing him along on the first — the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement — and he’s engaged in a seemingly endless rope-a-dope with China on the second with no guarantee of success. That’s left the economy as a major wild card for next year. Businesses are sitting on cash instead of making investments. Growth is stalled at around 2 percent and expected to slow. Jobs numbers are decent but far from “yuge.” And big campaign promises remain unfulfilled. Even Trump’s most ardent supporters acknowledge the president’s reelection bid would face enormous risks if the economy turns down next year. “If the economy starts to falter in 2020, Trump can’t win. There are just too many people who don’t like him but would otherwise vote for him in a good economy,” said Stephen Moore, a

A preliminary trade deal between the United States and China is "millimeters away," a senior administration official said on Wednesday. The comments add to the growing optimism that the U.S. and China can announce a so-called phase one agreement soon after the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. President Donald Trump has been pushing for a deal that would force Beijing to purchase significant amounts of U.S. agricultural goods after American farmers in the Midwest have been battered by Chinese retaliation during a nearly two-year trade war. Story Continued Below An initial trade deal could also involve a rollback of tariffs that Trump has slapped on roughly $360 billion worth of Chinese goods. Another round of duties is scheduled to hit $160 billion worth of Chinese imports, including consumer goods like laptops and smartphones, on Dec. 15. The White House has been signaling "cautious optimism" that it could close a deal soon. Work in recent days has in

President Donald Trump needs two big achievements to keep markets and the economy as glittering assets in his challenging 2020 reelection bid: passage of a new NAFTA and a trade deal with China. But Democrats are stringing him along on the first — the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement — and he’s engaged in a seemingly endless rope-a-dope with China on the second with no guarantee of success. That’s left the economy as a major wild card for next year. Businesses are sitting on cash instead of making investments. Growth is stalled at around 2 percent and expected to slow. Jobs numbers are decent but far from “yuge.” And big campaign promises remain unfulfilled. Even Trump’s most ardent supporters acknowledge the president’s reelection bid would face enormous risks if the economy turns down next year. “If the economy starts to falter in 2020, Trump can’t win. There are just too many people who don’t like him but would otherwise vote for him in a good economy,” said Stephen Moore, a