Paris (AFP)

France plans to suspend the levy of its tax on digital taxation this year in order to avoid American sanctions and to give more time to negotiations within the OECD in order to find a global agreement.

"The tax is maintained, but the payment of installments scheduled in April and November is suspended to give time to negotiations within the OECD," said a French source AFP, the day after a telephone conversation between French presidents Emmanuel Macron and American Donald Trump.

"It is on the table for discussions that will take place Wednesday" in Davos between the French Minister of Finance, Bruno Le Maire, and his American counterpart Steven Mnuchin, whose country threatens Paris with sanctions for having imposed as of last year the digital giants, added this source.

According to another source, close to the negotiations, "France would thus suspend the payment of the advance payment of the tax planned for April and the balance to be paid in November by the companies concerned".

On his arrival at a meeting of European finance ministers in Brussels, Le Maire evaded the question: "I will not go into the details of the negotiations. I prefer that it remains between Mnuchin and myself", said he declared.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, on the sidelines of the Davos Economic Forum, the American secretary of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, nevertheless presented the French proposal as "the beginning of a solution", on the eve of his meeting with Mr. The Mayor and the Secretary General of the OECD, Angel Gurria.

He also assured the newspaper that Macron had announced the day before that Trump was suspending the tax.

Mr. Mnuchin also took the opportunity to brandish the threat of sanctions against the United Kingdom and Italy, two countries which also plan to unilaterally impose the digital giants: if they do not suspend their taxes, "They in turn will face President Trump's tariffs," he warned.

- American conditions -

On the other hand, Mr Mnuchin did not express himself on the condition which he had posed in December for an agreement under the aegis of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which would make this global tax optional and give companies the option to submit to it or not.

A requirement rejected by France and other countries. "I do not know of an optional tax," said the European Commissioner for the Internal Market and Digital Affairs, Thierry Breton, on Monday at the time of the scheduled meeting in Davos between Mr. Trump and the president of the European commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

"This proposal is at the end of the table," said the source close to the negotiations, who pleads for the 135 countries currently negotiating the tax to advance in the discussions and only tackle the American condition at the end.

The discussions under the aegis of the OECD therefore promise to be "very difficult", as recognized by Mr. Le Maire, who however reiterated his hope of finding an agreement "by the end of 2020", as stipulated the mandate given by the G20 to the international institution.

"Time is running out and bilateral conflicts are not good for negotiating a multilateral agreement", warned another source close to the negotiations who hope that France and the United States will put an end to their dispute.

France has decided to impose a tax on January 1, 2019 on large digital companies up to 3% of their turnover, pending the adoption of international taxation.

The Trump administration then threatened to overtax "up to 100%" the equivalent of $ 2.4 billion in French products.

Despite the possibility of a lull in the US / EU trade war on the digital side, concerns remain very strong in France, particularly in the wine sector because of threats of a sharp rise in American taxes which weigh in the context of aeronautical dispute between Washington and Brussels.

© 2020 AFP