France could be stepping into the middle of US President Donald Trump's global trade campaign. It has introduced a tax on large companies that largely hits American tech giants -- sparking concern that the US might retaliate with measures of its own. CGTN's Stefan de Vries in Paris has the report.

STEFAN DE VRIES PARIS "The French call it the tax of the 21st Century, the so-called GAFA tax. That's short for Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple, all American tech giants. There will be a 3 percent tax on companies with a worldwide turnover of more than 750 million euros and a turnover here in France of more than 25 million euros."

The tax will not only apply to the tech giants, but also to e-commerce sites like Alibaba, Ebay and Microsoft.

For the moment, France is the only country in Europe with a project for digital tax.

VINCENT RENOUX SENIOR TAX PARTNER AT STEHLIN "I think this tax is made for very political reasons as a mean to answer the various of protesters, that we called the 'yellow jackets', and it emphasizes the fact that Gafa did not pay tax in Europe and especially in France, so that was a political answer. The government tries to have this answer on the level of Europe of European Community, but it did not work to show that nevertheless they did something on this issue. They decided to do on their own on the level of France."

Some member states of the European Union however, fear that the United States will retaliate and impose a similar levy on European companies.

We contacted all the companies that will be affected by this new tax here in France. So far, we only got a statement by Alibaba, saying that they are monitoring the situation around the digital tax and that they will define their position once the final tax has been adopted.

This is Stefan de Vries, in Paris for CGTN.