France calls on the Biden government to accept the international "Google rate"

France, one of the countries that pressures the most for the elaboration of a global Google rate, trusts that with the arrival of Democrat Joe Biden to the White House, among the many things that will change, the current hostile attitude of the United States towards the international appraisal of large digital platforms.

According to the French Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, on Tuesday, Paris gives Washington room until the summer to change its position and accept the proposal prepared by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Otherwise, he warned, we will have to look for European alternatives, a possibility that Brussels is already working on.

"We give ourselves until the summer of 2021 to convince our new American partner, the Biden administration, to subscribe to this tax and the modalities defined within the framework of the OECD," said Le Maire in reference to the new deadline that has been set for the international body to have a proposal for international taxation ready for the Internet giants.

"Everyone can see that in this crisis (due to the coronavirus) the big winners are the digital giants, who are the ones who have generated the greatest benefits during this period of crisis," he said in his traditional speech to the press to present the objectives of the new Year.

"This makes it even more necessary, fairer, the implementation of a digital valuation at the OECD level in the coming months," he insisted.

France is one of the main promoters of the so-called Google tax, which is why it has maintained a hard pulse in recent years with the Government of Donald Trump, which has ended up backing down every time international negotiations advanced.

These have been in the hands of the OECD, which planned to have presented a model last year.

However, it did not manage to meet the deadlines and has given time until mid-2021 to propose a mechanism that would allow, according to its experts, to redistribute a tax collection of around 100,000 million dollars (85,000 million euros) globally .

In the absence of progress at the OECD level, Paris announced in November that it was charging its own Google rate again, the collection of which had frozen in early 2020 pending an agreement that did not materialize.

France approved in the summer of 2019 a tax of about 3% of the turnover of technology companies in the country that obtain annual revenues of at least 750 million euros (about 830 million dollars).

According to the Agence France Presse, it has already allowed it to raise more than 400 million euros in 2020.

After Paris's decision to reactivate the collection of its Google tax, the United States threatened to apply the tariffs to French products that it prepared in July last year in retaliation for the French digital tax.

But on January 7, a day after the date set for its launch, the Office of the North American Trade Representative, Robert Lighthizer, announced its temporary suspension pending the results of his team's investigations in other countries that Like Spain, they have also adopted or are considering a Google rate of their own.

"A suspension of the rate action against France will promote a coordinated response in all investigations" on national digital rates, his office said in a statement less than two weeks after the transfer of power in the White House.

Despite this, Paris maintains the collection of its Google rate, Ministry sources confirmed to this newspaper on Tuesday.

In any case, the fact that France is confident of a change in attitude with Biden does not mean that it is not exploring other possibilities.

If by the summer there is no movement on the American side, "we will have to go back to a European solution," said Le Maire, referring to the Brussels plans.

Last September, the European Commission said that it would prepare its own legislative proposal in the first half of 2021 if the OECD did not fulfill - as it has not done - its promise to present a plan in 2020. Although since then Brussels has not said again if it keeps its calendar, Paris is counting on the European plan B to be ready “this spring”, according to the sources, which could serve to exert greater pressure when the OECD finally presents its international proposal.