US President Donald Trump threatens European international locations with new tariffs of 100% in the event that they determine on digital taxes. The tariffs would substitute agreed customs agreements, Trump wrote on the Reality Social platform. This is applicable no matter whether or not the agreements have already been applied or signed.
The brand new ones Customs duties could be levied on all items exported to the USA, Trump wrote. He justified his strategy by saying that some international locations have been about to go digital taxes that might have an effect on American firms. The president didn’t title any particular international locations. If such tariffs come, the EU won’t merely settle for it, in line with a Fee spokesman.
Plans additionally in Germany
In Germany, too, there have been repeated plans prior to now for a digital levy from massive web firms. The non-party Minister of State for Media Wolfram Weimer has lengthy been campaigning for a levy in order that Google and different firms hand over a share of their revenues in an effort to help the German media system. He relied on a devoted platform levy for media.
Nevertheless, there have been completely different positions on this throughout the black-red coalition. A while in the past, Social Democrats backed a traditional digital tax.
The digital levy would have an effect on massive web firms corresponding to Google and Meta. Austria is a job mannequin. Since 2020, massive on-line platforms have been obliged to pay 5 % of their earnings from promoting advertising and marketing.
Weimer defended his ideas after Trump’s publish. The information website ntv.de quoted him as saying: “We aren’t involved with one-sided discrimination towards US firms, however slightly with truthful aggressive circumstances and a various media marketplace for everybody.” He additionally mentioned: “Media regulation of enormous platforms shouldn’t develop into a commerce coverage difficulty.”
Trump threatened time and again
It’s not the primary time that Trump has condemned a digital levy and threatened tariffs. In August 2025, he had already issued a warning to international locations to cease such taxes. He hadn’t named a particular nation.
As well as, he had already explicitly threatened Nice Britain over the taxation of US companies, however had not carried out the tariff menace thus far.
Tariffs are a central factor of Trump’s second time period in workplace, however his aggressive tariff coverage additionally reached its limits. The Supreme Courtroom within the USA had declared lots of the tariffs that Trump had imposed by decree citing an emergency legislation to be unlawful.
Authorized foundation unclear
In his menace, the US President now spoke of imposing the brand new tariffs “instantly” if international locations determine on digital taxes. Nevertheless, it remained unclear what authorized foundation might permit him to do that so rapidly.
One lever that Trump has already resorted to a number of occasions after his defeat on the Supreme Courtroom is to provoke investigations into allegedly unfair practices primarily based on a passage of a 1974 commerce legislation. Relying on the end result, such investigations might justify new tariffs. Previously, the USA had already initiated customs investigations into digital taxes towards France, Austria, Spain and Italy, amongst others.
EU has accepted customs agreements
Simply the day earlier than, in Luxembourg, EU international locations gave the inexperienced mild to abolish tariffs on US industrial items and to grant US seafood and agricultural merchandise higher market entry. The commerce settlement between the EU and the USA might due to this fact quickly have been totally applied.
Nevertheless, a security web ought to be sure that the advantages solely apply if the USA totally implements its obligations beneath the settlement. The European Parliament and the states agreed on this after an extended battle. Amongst different issues, it’s envisaged that the EU can droop tariff concessions if the USA violates agreements – for instance by growing tariffs once more.
In response to Trump’s menace, a spokesman for the EU Fee mentioned that taxes don’t discriminate and would apply “equally to all massive firms”, no matter their origin. “Unilateral measures that concentrate on such official political measures are unjustified. If such measures are taken, the EU will reply rapidly and decisively to defend its rights and regulatory autonomy.”
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