Macron, Trump hail common ground at G7
French President Emmanuel Macron and US leader Donald Trump yesterday hailed the common ground found by G7 leaders at their summit, which was dominated by the Iranian nuclear crisis, trade and fires in the Amazon.
“We have managed to find real points of convergence, unprecedented, very positive, that will allow us to go forward in a very useful way,” Macron said at a press conference alongside Trump in Biarritz, southwest France.
Trump said Macron had done an “fantastic job” at the G7.
“This was a very special, a very unified two and a half days and I want to thank you,” Trump told his host.
Macron and Trump, who have at times had stormy relations over the last two years, ended the press conference with two bouts of handshaking and hugging.
Macron acknowledged there had been “nervousness” ahead of the summit amid tensions between the US and Europe on a host of issues.
France and the United States have reached a deal to end a standoff over a French tax on big internet companies, Macron said at the press conference.
Trump had threatened to hit back with tariff action after France passed a law earlier this year that would impose a 3% tax on revenues earned on digital services in France.
Macron told reporters that companies that pay the tax would be able to deduct the amount once a new international deal on how to tax internet companies is found next year.
“We’ve done a lot a work on the bilateral basis, we have a deal to overcome the difficulties between us,” Macron told reporters, speaking alongside US President Donald Trump at the end of a G7 summit in southwestern France.
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