WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump said he will impose “substantial additional tariffs” on countries that have digital taxes, calling them a threat to his administration.
Sources, on Monday, August 25, said the Trump administration was considering penalties on European Union or member state officials accountable for executing the bloc’s landmark Digital Services Act.
“With this truth, I put all countries with digital taxes, legislation, rules, or regulations, on notice that unless these discriminatory actions are removed, I, as President of the United States, will impose substantial additional tariffs on that country’s exports to the USA and institute export restrictions on our highly protected technology and chips,” Trump said in a social media post.
He added that the legislation was “designed to harm or discriminate against American technology,” and that it favored firms from the U.S. tech rival China.
Several countries, particularly in Europe, have imposed taxes on the revenues of digital service companies such as Alphabet’s Google, Meta’s Facebook, Apple, and Amazon.
Trump has also threatened to levy tariffs on nations such as Canada and France over disagreements regarding digital services taxes.
In February, Trump directed his trade chief to restart an investigation into imposing tariffs on imports from countries that enforce digital service taxes on American technology firms.
