Washington (AFP)

Importers of Limoges porcelain, sellers of champagne ... The small world of French products in the United States met Tuesday in Washington, to try to convince the Trump administration to renounce the tax it threatens to apply in retaliation to the French digital tax.

In the calm of an audience hall with impeccable gray and white paint, closed wooden blinds, around thirty heads of companies or professional organizations were invited to come and testify.

In front of them, eight officials, from the Department of Commerce or Agriculture, the administration of small businesses, or the State Secretariat for the Treasury.

"American workers and consumers will suffer more from these taxes" than the French, argues Joanna Rosenberg, vice-president of a group which imports the Staub Alsatian casseroles across the Atlantic.

On his right, George Kakaty, CEO of Bernardaud in the United States, which imports Limoges porcelain, adds: "customs tariffs will decimate small American companies established for a long time".

In retaliation for the French tax that targets digital giants, the Trump administration has threatened to overtax up to 100% of certain iconic French products.

However, these customs duties "will only penalize American small family businesses", which import these products and market them in the United States, warns David Waldenberg, a wine importer, applauded by the assembly at the end of his testimony.

Such taxes would compel companies to raise prices for their customers, who may then turn away from them because they cannot afford them, or bear these costs.

These companies would then find themselves in difficulty, and "hundreds of Americans could lose their jobs," according to William Tomaszewski, one of the managers of the online sales site for wines.com.

- Chinese porcelain -

"As soon as you raise tariffs, you increase costs for companies with very low margins," Marianne Rowden, president of the American association of importers and exporters, told AFP.

"The value of these products is so low (...) that it will have no impact on the French government," said George Kakaty, praising the "unique" qualities of Limoges porcelain, ensuring that it doesn’t exists by equivalent in the United States.

On the other hand, he explains, his customers, including many restaurateurs and hoteliers, will no longer be able to afford this luxurious Limoges porcelain, and will then be forced to turn to cheaper dishes. Coming from China.

Each testimony lasts five minutes, stopwatch in hand. Then come the questions: how much of your activity represents French products? Where are your competitors' products made? Who owns your business?

The jury stops. "We have an announcement to make. Federal employees have to leave at 1:00 pm due to weather conditions (expected snow, editor's note). So we have to be concise."

The testimonies resume.

For Nate Herman, vice president of the American clothing and footwear association, this is "another argument that has nothing to do with our industry".

He had already come to defend his activity in this same room a few months ago, when the government announced punitive taxes on European products, in response to the subsidies granted to Airbus.

"We shouldn't be there," he railed.

© 2020 AFP