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President Donald Trump has imposed tariffs on French wines in a
row over Airbus subsidies, threatened levies on Champagne and
luxury handbags in a digital tax dispute, and pursued an
isolationist "America First" stance.
Asked if France anticipated that a Biden presidency would be
more reconciling, Riester told Reuters: "We would surely see an
improvement in relations. We would be more aligned on matters of
sustainable development and perhaps also on multilateral work."
Biden took a razor-thin lead over President Donald Trump in the
battleground state of Georgia early on Friday, edging closer to
winning the White House.
Biden's camp has said during the campaign that he would end the
"artificial trade war" that Trump had waged against Europe,
while addressing imbalances in agricultural trade with the bloc.
France has imposed a new 3% tax on revenues of big tech
companies, but agreed to suspend payments this year while
international talks are held over how to tax giants such as
Google <GOOGL.O> and Facebook <FB.O>. In return, Trump agreed to
hold off on a tariff war until the end of 2020.
Riester said it was too early to know if the tariffs threatened
on Champagne, French cheese and handbags in retaliation for the
new digital tax would be imposed. He said France was committed
to OECD-led negotiations on a rewrite of cross-border tax rules.
Meanwhile, EU countries were finalising a list of products the
bloc would target with tariffs in a dispute over subsidies
between planemakers Airbus and Boeing. Riester said aerospace,
agri-food and manufacturing were the sectors most likely to be
hit.
(Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by
Peter Graff)
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