On the eve of President Donald Trump’s meeting with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in London on the sidelines of the NATO alliance talks, the U.S. announced that it could levy duties up to 100% on $2.4 billion in French imports  into the country. The announcement comes after the office of the U.S. Trade Representative’s (USTR) probe into France’s Digital Services Tax (DST) concluded that a French tax measure is discriminatory towards specific U.S. technology companies.  The proposed tariffs could include French champagne, porcelain and some cheese varieties.

The ‘301’ trade probe against France was launched in July after Mr. Macron signed the DST into law, aimed at taxing digital companies that did substantial business in France. The DST is a 3% tax on the turnover of digital companies with global turnover of at least €750 million, of which €25 million is generated in France. U.S. tech giants, including Google, Amazon and Facebook, had called for the tax to be scrapped. The probe found that the “French DST discriminates against the U.S. digital companies”, as per a USTR statement, which said the tax was inconsistent with prevailing tax principles due to its retroactivities, application to revenue rather than income and extraterritorial application. The statement said the tax was aimed at penalising specific U.S. tech firms.

The ‘301’ probe is a trade tool authorised by Section 301 of the U.S. Trade Act of 1974, which the U.S. uses to assert its rights under trade agreements if it decides American industries are facing “unfair” foreign trade practices.  “USTR’s decision today sends a clear signal that the United States will take action against digital tax regimes that discriminate or otherwise impose undue burdens on U.S. companies,” U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said via a statement released on Monday. The USTR was focusing on countering the “growing protectionism of EU member states” and may also open 301 investigations into the digital services tax against Turkey, Austria and Italy, Mr. Lighthizer said.

Answer the following questions from the above passage-

Q1. What was the announcement by the U.S.?

Q2. Why the '301' trade probe was launched against France?

Q3. What is DST?

Q4. How the French DST discriminate against U.S. digital companies?

Q5. What is the '301' trade probe?