France to study how U.S. Extra-territorial legislation impacts the sovereignty of France https://t.co/e8dsNgekGS
— Citizenship Lawyer (@ExpatriationLaw) March 10, 2016
This is interesting and very welcome news. France is taking the lead to study and consider the effects of U.S. extra-territorial legislation on France, French businesses, and French citizens. The Commission is being led by Pierre Lellouche (Republicans, Paris) and Karine Berger rapporteur (Socialist, Republican and citizen, Hautes-Alpes). This appears to be a very broad study which includes, but is not limited to: FATCA, the U.S. taxation of French citizens and the “accidental Americans“.
For commentary see the post at Keith Redmond’s American Expatriates Facebook group. The post includes:
BIG NEWS!!!!! FRANCE ESTABLISHES A COMMISSION TO EXAMINE THE US EXTRATERRITORIAL OVERREACH BY THE US GOVERNMENT ON ITS CITIZENS IN FRANCE
“(Inaugural meeting dated Wednesday 2 March 2016)
The commissions for foreign affairs and finances of the French Parliament (Assemblee Nationale) decided to form a joint fact finding mission regarding the extraterritoriality of certain US laws, which held its inaugural meeting on Wednesday 2 March 2016. The president of the mission is Mr Pierre Lelouche (Republican Party, Paris) and his rapporteur is Ms Karine Berger (Socialist Party, Hautes-Alpes).
Several recent events have highlighted the propensity of the US courts and the US administration to purport to impose sanctions against foreign corporations and foreign individuals in respect of events occurring outside of US territory: these range from the record penalty one of France’s largest banks agreed to pay to the US administration (for a failure to comply with a US imposed embargo) to the acquisition of Alstom by General Electric against a backdrop of anti-corruption claims brought by the US authorities against senior managers of Alstom and including the US IRS pursuing French citizens living in France but born on US soil and therefore “Accidental Americans” for US income taxes.
Based on the feedback of a wide array of experts, the fact finding mission will attempt to define the contours of US extraterritoriality, exhaustively identify all cases of extraterritorial application of US laws, assess their impact and in particular their impact on fair competition and the economic losses suffered by French companies as a result, and to study ways in which to counter such practices both at a national and European level.
The mission hopes that its findings will lead to concrete implementation measures. The longstanding and deep ties that exist between France and the US in no way justify that the US should seek to assert legal imperium outside of its borders.rger rapporteur (Socialist, Republican and citizen, Hautes-Alpes).”