The new levies would override any previously agreed trade deals, the president has said
US President Donald Trump on Friday threatened to impose 100% tariffs on all imports from countries that impose a tax on digital services from American companies.
The threat comes amid long-running tensions between the US and European nations over digital services regulations and trade policy, raising the prospect of renewed trade friction despite a trade deal reached last year.
A number of European countries are discussing the implementation of a digital services tax on American firms, Trump said on Truth Social.
“Any Country that imposes such a Tax will immediately be met with a 100% TARIFF on any and all Goods sent to the United States of America,” he wrote. “This TARIFF will supersede Trade Deals made with the Country, whether implemented, signed, or not.”
The warning came a day after the EU Council approved tariff commitments agreed with the US under last year’s joint trade statement, eliminating the bloc’s remaining duties on American goods covered by the deal.
It was not immediately clear whether Trump’s proposed tariffs would apply to countries that already enforce digital services taxes or only to those introducing new ones.
France, Italy, and Spain each impose a 3% tax on certain digital revenues, while the UK applies a 2% tax on large search engines, social media platforms, and online marketplaces. Austria levies 5% on online advertising revenue, and Turkey imposes a 7.5% digital services tax. The levies tend to affect US technology giants like Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Meta, which dominate the market.
Trump and the EU have also clashed over the bloc’s Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act, which impose competition, transparency, and content-moderation obligations on large online platforms. US officials have repeatedly argued that the EU’s regulatory oversight rules and digital taxes unfairly target American companies.
At the same time, France has promoted what President Emmanuel Macron has called “digital sovereignty,” with the French government moving some public services away from Microsoft software and pursuing regulatory action against Elon Musk’s X under EU digital rules.
Earlier this month, Paris announced that French spy agency DGSI would replace AI software from US defense giant Palantir with a domestic alternative.
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