ROME, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Italy is ready to talk to the

incoming U.S. administration of Donald Trump to avoid potential

retaliation against Rome's domestic web tax, Deputy Economy

Minister Maurizio Leo said on Tuesday.

Washington has recently renewed calls for Italy to repeal

the levy, which it considers unfairly discriminatory as it

mainly targets U.S. tech companies such as Meta Platforms ( META )

, Google and Amazon ( AMZN ).

"With the Trump administration we will have to have a

dialogue" over the tax, Leo said on the sidelines of

parliamentary work.

In 2019, Rome introduced a 3% levy on revenue from internet

transactions for digital companies with annual sales of at least

750 million euros ($786 million) if at least 5.5 million euros

are generated in Italy.

As part of the 2025 budget bill, the Treasury tried to

remove these floors for the tax to be applied, in a move critics

said would have been a blow to smaller companies.

However, following skirmishes with the co-ruling Forza

Italia party, the government is set to reinstate the 750 million

euro revenue floor.

Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti had said that

broadening the scope of Italy's web tax to smaller firms could

have helped the government avoid clashes with the United States.

($1 = 0.9538 euros)

(Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte; Editing by Emelia

Sithole-Matarise)