| Hi everyone, it's Natalia. You know things are getting tense when world leaders make threats about wine and cheese consumption. The U.S. on Monday proposed about $2.4 billion of tariffs against France. The threatened trade action—targeting sparkling wine, cheese, handbags and cosmetics—is a response to French plans to levy a 3% revenue tax on large tech companies, such as Facebook Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., who target ads or provide other services to people based in France. President Trump hasn't always been U.S. tech's biggest cheerleader. But he thinks the U.S.—and no one else—should be taxing them. "These are American companies, and whether you like it or not they're great big American companies," Trump said in October. French politicians are stressing a point that economists have long been making: The world economy has shifted and tax rules should catch up to the modern era. Instead of imposing fees based on physical offices, for instance, regulation should take into account where a company's customers are based. France isn't the only country pursuing such taxes—the U.K., Canada and Italy are also considering or pushing ahead with similar rules. Meanwhile, talks are ongoing at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in search of a global, multilateral solution. If that fails, the European Union will also pursue similar rules, the bloc's tech czar has pledged. "We are strong believers in a global agreement", Margrethe Vestager said in an interview with Bloomberg TV last week. "But if that cannot be met, it would only be fair that we pick it up again." Washington may find itself having to retaliate using trade tools on multiple countries around the world—a prospect that could in turn weaken the U.S. economy. Or, in the French case of tariffs against wine, cheese and other products, raise prices for the ilk who consider overnighting at Trump Tower a norm. The announcement is the latest step in a long and bitter dispute on taxation policies between Europe and the U.S., who complain European officials are trying to tax American companies in ways that go beyond their jurisdiction. The Apple Inc. case was a prime example. Washington has accused the EU of trying to turn itself into a "supra-national tax authority" following a 2016 decision by the EU ordering the iPhone maker to pay back Ireland billions in unpaid taxes. The EU argued that Ireland gave the company an illegal subsidy. Still, finding agreement on a digital tax at the OECD or even among the countries of the European Union will prove a challenge. A previous EU plan failed after several European countries refused to sign off on it. That included Ireland, which houses the European headquarters of many big tech companies, including Apple. But as cracking down on U.S. tech continues to be in fashion, European politicians will keep demanding more cheese from Silicon Valley.—Natalia Drozdiak | 
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