Switzerland's president has rejected French criticism of her country's low taxes, demanding more "respect" from her cross-border colleagues.
Micheline Calmy-Rey was responding to comments from Arnaud Montebourg, a French politician, who said it was time the EU did something about the tax "banditry" of some Swiss cantons.
"We don't need any advice" on setting taxes, Calmy-Rey told a Swiss television late on Friday.
She also said that it was up to Swiss voters to make their own decisions and that each country had the right to defend its economic interests.
Montebourg is an ally of Segolene Royal, the French Socialist presidential candidate, and the spat follows the much-publicised tax-flight of Gallic rocker Johnny Hallyday to Switzerland amid a heated debate over taxation that has become a central issue in the presidential election campaign in France.
Calmy-Rey, a Social-Democrat whose one-year term began on January 1, noted that more than 100,000 French citizens cross the border into Switzerland every day to work, and that her country collected about 300 million Swiss francs ($240 million) in taxes last year for the European Union even though it is not a member of the bloc.
Each Swiss canton sets its own personal and corporate tax rates, which can be as little as half that of large EU members such as Germany, France or Britain.