Trump's tax threat on French wine is 'completely moronic', says farming minister

[July 30, 2019]   PARIS (Reuters) - French farming minister Didier Guillaume said on Tuesday U.S. President Donald Trump's threat to tax French wines was "completely moronic".

Trump threatened last week to make the move in retaliation for France's proposal to levy a tax aimed at big U.S. technology companies - known in France as the 'GAFAs' (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple). Trump also said U.S. wine was better than French wine.

"It's absurd, in terms of having a political and economic debate, to say that if you tax the 'GAFAs', I'll tax wine. It's completely moronic," Guillaume told BFM TV. "American wine is not better than French wine," he added.

(Reporting by Inti Landauro and Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

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