On January 7, 2021, the US Trade Representative (USTR) announced that the tariff action in the Section 301 investigation of France’s Digital Services Tax (DST) will be suspended. The additional 25% ad valorem tariffs on certain products of France were announced in July 2020, and were scheduled to go into effect on January 6, 2021. The USTR has decided to suspend the tariffs in light of the ongoing investigation of similar DSTs adopted or under consideration in ten other jurisdictions: Austria, Brazil, the Czech Republic, the European Union, India, Indonesia, Italy, Spain, Turkey, and the United Kingdom (See 85 FR 34709, June 5, 2020). Those investigations have significantly progressed, but have not yet reached a determination on possible trade actions. USTR has said that a suspension of the tariff action in the France DST investigation will promote a coordinated response in all of the ongoing DST investigations.
The suspension of the France DST tariffs is officially set out in a notice [Docket Number USTR–2019–0009] published in the Federal Register on January 12, 2021, which suspends the additional duties on products of France indefinitely, as of the previously scheduled effective date of 12:01 a.m. eastern standard time on January 6, 2021.
