Washington (AFP)

Washington has reiterated its willingness to negotiate legislation for the digital giants in the OECD, according to a letter from the US Treasury Secretary to the OECD, in the form of a denial of a possible US withdrawal.

"The United States supports discussions in the OECD to tackle the problems of an international tax system," writes Steven Mnuchin to José Angel Gurria, Secretary General of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) , in this document dated December 3, which AFP had a copy on Wednesday.

The US minister denies rumors that the United States has backed down on this issue.

"We think that it is very important that these discussions lead to an agreement to avoid the proliferation of unilateral measures," adds Mnuchin, referring in particular to the French tax on American mastodons, the Gafa (Google, Apple , Facebook and Amazon).

The French tax, which imposes the digital giants to 3% of turnover in France, sowed discord between Paris and Washington.

In retaliation, the Trump administration threatened Monday to impose additional tariffs of up to 100% on a myriad of French products including champagne and Roquefort, representing $ 2.4 billion.

For months, Paris repeats that this solution is intended to be only temporary pending the outcome of international negotiations.

But Monday, the French Minister of Economy Bruno Le Maire was on the rise, criticizing the attitude of Washington.

"After calling for an international solution to the OECD, (Washington) is not sure of wanting," he said in reference to the fact that the United States had agreed a few months earlier a negotiation in the context of the OECD.

French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Donald Trump had indeed promised to resolve their dispute at the last G7 in Biarritz (western France), giving the OECD the mandate to negotiate a broad international agreement on the issue thorny of digital taxation.

For his part, the French Thierry Breton, the new European Commissioner for the Single Market and Digital, went even further by suggesting that Steven Mnuchin could announce the withdrawal of the United States from the OECD negotiations.

"I understand that we were going to have an answer probably from Mr. Mnuchin in the day telling us that finally it did not hold," he said Monday on the French channel BFM Business, brandishing the threat of 'a tax applied by the European Union to the digital giants.

In his letter, Steven Mnuchin seems to put the points on the "i". And he recalls the position of the United States, which is strongly opposed to taxes on digital services, as they have a discriminatory impact on US companies and are incompatible with the existing international tax rules architecture, which aims to impose net income rather than gross income ".

Finally, he urges all countries to suspend their digital tax initiative "to enable the OECD to successfully conclude a multilateral agreement".

© 2019 AFP