Britain's Johnson backs digital tax despite Trump's ire

British Prime Minister BorisJohnsonsaid he would press ahead with newtaxes on US internet giants like Facebook and Google, putting him at odds with US President Donald Trump who has threatened retaliation against France over itsdigitaltaxplans.

"On thedigitalservicestax, I do think we need to look at the operation of the bigdigitalcompanies and the huge revenues they have in this country and the amount oftaxthat they pay,"Johnsonsaid on Tuesday, according to a BBC report.

"We need to sort that out. They need to make a fairer contribution."

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Johnson's Conservative Party has committed to implementing adigitalservicetaxon the revenue of companies such as Google, Facebook, and Amazon in its blueprint for government if it wins this month's national election.

Under the plan, tech companies that generate at least 500 million pounds($640 million) a year in global revenue will pay a levy of 2 per centof the money they make from UK users from April 2020.

France'sdigitalservicetax, which has been set at a rate of 3 per centof revenue derived from French users backdated to early 2019, has raised theireof Trump.

The United States said on Monday said it could slap punitive duties of up to 100 per centon $2.4 billion in imports from France of Champagne, handbags, cheese and other products.

"We'vetaxed wine and we have othertaxes scheduled," Trump told reporters, sitting alongside French President Emmanuel Macron in London ahead of a NATO summit, on Tuesday.

"We'd rather not do that, but that's the way it would work. So it's either going to work out, or we'll work out some mutually beneficialtax."