US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose a 100% tariff on European countries that impose a digital services tax on US tech companies.
In a social media post on Friday, Trump wrote that numerous European countries had been discussing the imminent implementation of a Digital Services Tax on American companies and some of the countries “are close to actually doing this”.
He said that if the taxes were to proceed, the US retaliatory tariff would be immediately imposed.
Digital service taxes typically apply only to the world’s largest and most established tech companies, like Meta, Alphabet and Amazon, all of which are US firms. More than a dozen countries have imposed digital services taxes, according to media outlets in Europe on Friday.
Trump has previously vowed to retaliate against countries that impose digital services taxes, saying they unfairly target US tech giants.
In February, the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s “reciprocal tariffs” that aimed to impose individualised tariff rates on almost all countries in the world under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
Hours after the ruling, Trump signed an executive order imposing a new global 10% tariff under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974. But tariffs under this section can last for only 150 days.
- US President Donald Trump threatened a 100% tariff on European countries that implement digital services taxes on US tech firms.
- Trump warned that several European nations are close to enforcing these taxes on major American companies like Meta, Alphabet, and Amazon.
- Digital services taxes target the largest tech companies and have been adopted by over a dozen countries in Europe.
- Trump views these taxes as unfair and has previously promised retaliation against countries imposing them.
- In response to a Supreme Court ruling against his prior tariff approach, Trump issued a new 10% global tariff with limited duration under the Trade Act of 1974.
