William Horobin

German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said President Joe Biden’s administration has shown a readiness to clinch an agreement on how to tax global tech companies, potentially overcoming an American block and paving the way for an accord later this year.

The U.S. will suspend a plan to hit $1.3 billion of French goods with tariffs in retaliation for the European country’s tax on the revenue of global tech companies.

France is hoping for a quick end to the simmering transatlantic trade battle over its tax on technology giants such as Facebook Inc. as soon as President-elect Joe Biden takes office.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire is keeping Europe on course for a trade battle with the U.S. over the taxation of tech giants like Facebook and Alphabet Inc.’s Google.

International negotiations on new tax rules for the digital age will fail to conclude this year, raising the risk of a transatlantic trade conflict and a proliferation of contentious national levies on global tech giants.

The European Union may delay digital tax proposals to give countries move time to hammer out a deal and avert a transatlantic trade war, a top official from the bloc said.

New data shows the extent to which multinational companies shift profits around the globe to avoid tax, increasing pressure on international efforts to rewrite rules for a digital era, the OECD said.