Donald Trump has threatened to place a 100% import tariff on any European country that imposes a tax on digital services from US companies.
- +Trump threatens 100% tariff on European countries that impose digital tax
Writing on Truth Social on Friday, the US president said that “numerous European countries” had been discussing putting a digital services tax on American companies and that “some of these countries are close to actually doing this”.
Writing on Truth Social on Friday, the US president said that “numerous European countries” had been discussing putting a digital services tax on American companies and that “some of these countries are close to actually doing this”.
“Please let this statement serve to represent that 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,” Trump continued.
He added that the tariff would be immediately imposed and supersede any other prior trade deals that existed with the country.
The threat could set off another saga in Trump’s global trade war, in which he has placed drastic tariffs on countries and economic blocs at once. If Trump followed through on his warning, it could set off a larger trade war between the US and EU if the 27-country economic bloc felt compelled to retaliate to the tariff hike.
France, Spain and Italy impose a digital services tax of 3% on large companies working in their countries, while several other EU countries have either implemented or proposed similar policies.
The UK has a 2% digital services tax that applies to social media platforms, large search engines and online marketplaces which have global revenues from digital services exceeding £500m , total UK revenues of over £25m and “derive value” from UK users.
The digital services tax applies to US tech companies such as Apple, Google and Amazon, and raised more than £800m in 2024-2025, according to the UK Treasury.
An EU spokesperson said that the economic bloc reserved the right to defend itself against such tariffs.
“Unilateral measures targeting such legitimate policies are unjustified. If pursued, the EU will respond swiftly and decisively to defend its rights and regulatory autonomy,” said Olof Gill, a spokesperson for the European Commission.
Gill said that digital services taxes did not target companies from any countries in particular and that they applied to “all large companies, regardless of their origin”.
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Trump has repeatedly railed against countries trying to impose taxes or regulate US tech companies. He had previously threatened to impose tariffs on any countries that tried to do so.
In April, Trump said the UK could face a “big tariff” for what he described as targeting of US companies with taxes.
“They think they’re going to make an easy buck, that’s why they’ve all taken advantage of our country,” Trump said in April.
Trump’s threats came as his 4 July deadline for the EU and US to start implementing a tariff deal looms. In May, the EU signed a trade deal with the US which caps most tariffs on EU imports at 15% – a deal that came after months of wrangling and tensions between the two sides.
Digital services taxes were not a part of that agreement and continue to be an obstacle to trade talks.
