US President Donald Trump said Washington will impose 100% tariffs on imports from any country that taxes digital services of American companies. He wrote this on his Truth Social network. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
According to Trump, the warning primarily concerns European states, which he claims are close to introducing a digital services tax. The American leader believes such measures are aimed against US technology companies dominating the digital economy.
"Let this statement serve as a warning: any country imposing such a tax will immediately face a 100% tariff on all goods without exception supplied to the United States of America," Trump wrote.
The US president also stressed that the new tariffs will take precedence over any previously concluded trade agreements. According to him, the restrictions will apply to any country that introduces such a tax, but he specifically singled out European Union states.
As Euronews reports, Trump has consistently opposed international initiatives to tax and regulate American technology corporations. Earlier, he stated that such measures "are aimed solely at harming and discriminating against American technologies."
The new statement came shortly before the deadline set by the White House — July 4, when the US and the European Union are to begin implementing a new trade agreement. The document provides for limiting most tariffs on European exports to the US to 15%.
At the same time, the issue of the digital services tax was not included in the agreement and remains one of the main points of disagreement between Washington and Brussels.
It is not yet clear how the Trump administration intends to implement its threat and whether the possible tariffs will apply immediately to all countries or initially affect individual trading partners.
One of the countries already applying a digital services tax is the United Kingdom. After leaving the European Union in 2020, London introduced a 2% tax on revenues of search engines, social networks, and online platforms that profit from British users.
The British government then explained that traditional corporate tax rules do not account for the specifics of the digital economy, causing the place of profit generation to not always coincide with the place of value creation. The authorities also emphasized that the tax mainly applies to large international companies and is intended to ensure their fair contribution to funding public services.