Trump threatens tariffs, EU defends tech rules

A day after ￰0￱ Donald Trump threatened tariffs and export limits tied to digital services taxes, the European Union on Tuesday rejected claims that its technology rules are ￰1￱ Commission spokeswoman Paula Pinho said, “It’s the sovereign right of the EU and its member states to regulate our economic activities on our territory that are consistent with our democratic values.” Trump’s warning targeted countries with digital services taxes that affect US ￰2￱ threatened export restrictions and tariffs on advanced technology and ￰3￱ Tuesday, he said in a post on Truth Social, saying governments whose taxes, legislation, and rules hit companies such as Google, Meta, Amazon, and Apple would face US action.

“Digital taxes, legislation, rules, or regulations are all designed to harm or discriminate against American technology,” he ￰4￱ singled out the UK’s digital services tax, a 2% levy on revenues that raises about £800m a year from global tech companies, and said these policies “outrageously give a complete pass to China’s largest tech companies.” Trump threatened further retaliation Trump added, “As the president of the United States, I will stand up to countries that attack our incredible American tech ￰5￱ 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.” The remarks add pressure on the UK and the EU, which both recently struck trade deals with the United ￰6￱ EU has the Digital Services Act to limit the power of large platforms, and several member states, including France, Italy, and Spain, maintain their own digital services ￰7￱ have opposed the UK’s levy, introduced in 2020 and kept in place even after a trade accord with the Trump administration was finalized in ￰8￱ has argued that digital services taxes harm ￰9￱ February, he signed an executive order titled “Defending American Companies and Innovators from Overseas Extortion and Unfair Fines and Penalties,” which warned of retaliatory ￰10￱ April, it emerged that Prime Minister Keir Starmer had offered big US tech firms a lower tax rate to appease Trump, while applying the tax to firms from other ￰11￱ wrote on Monday, “America, and American technology companies, are neither the ‘piggy bank’ nor the ‘doormat’ of the world any ￰12￱ respect to America and our amazing tech companies or consider the consequences.” EU stands firm while Canada backs Off The sharp rhetoric came a week after the US and the EU said in a joint statement they would work together to “address unjustified trade barriers.” Before Tuesday’s press briefing , The European Commission said separately it had not committed to changing its digital ￰13￱ June, Canada dropped its digital services tax as reported by Cryptopolitan , which Trump had called a “direct and blatant” attack, to help smooth trade talks with the United ￰14￱ pushback ￰15￱ Democrat leader Ed Davey said the government should not give in to “bullying.” “The prime minister must rule out giving in to Donald Trump’s bullying by watering down Britain’s digital services tax,” he said.

“Tech tycoons like Elon Musk rake in millions off our online data and couldn’t care less about keeping kids safe ￰16￱ last thing they need is a tax ￰17￱ way to respond to Trump’s destructive trade war is to work with our allies to stand up to him.” Get up to $30,050 in trading rewards when you join Bybit today