{"id":162118,"date":"2025-08-27T01:47:17","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T01:47:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-threatens-tariffs-on-countries-that-discriminate-against-us-tech-trump-tariffs-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T01:47:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T01:47:17","slug":"trump-threatens-tariffs-on-countries-that-discriminate-against-us-tech-trump-tariffs-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-threatens-tariffs-on-countries-that-discriminate-against-us-tech-trump-tariffs-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump threatens tariffs on countries that \u2018discriminate\u2019 against US tech | Trump tariffs – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Levies and restrictions could hit UK\u2019s digital services tax and EU states such as France, Italy and Spain
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Donald Trump has threatened to impose tariffs and export restrictions on countries whose taxes, legislation and regulations target US big tech companies such as Google, Meta, Amazon and Apple.
In a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, the US president said: \u201cDigital taxes, legislation, rules or regulations are all designed to harm, or discriminate against, American technology.\u201d
He said such measures \u2013 which include the UK\u2019s digital services tax, which raises about \u00a3800m annually from global tech companies through a 2% levy on revenues \u2013 also \u201coutrageously give a complete pass to China\u2019s largest tech companies\u201d.
Trump said: \u201cAs the president of the United States, I will stand up to countries that attack our incredible American tech companies. Unless these discriminatory actions are removed, I, as president of the United States, will impose substantial additional tariffs on that country\u2019s exports to the USA, and institute export restrictions on our highly protected technology and chips.\u201d
The threat puts pressure on the UK and the EU, which both struck recent trade agreements with the US. The EU has in place regulations to limit the power of big tech companies through the Digital Services Act<\/a>, and several member states including France, Italy and Spain have digital services taxes in place.
US officials have criticised the UK\u2019s digital services tax (DST), which was introduced in 2020 and was kept in place after the trade deal with the Trump administration that was reached in May<\/a>.
Trump has complained about the impact that DSTs around the world are having on US companies. In February he issued an executive order titled Defending American Companies and Innovators from Overseas Extortion and Unfair Fines and Penalties, threatening tariffs in retaliation.
In April it emerged that Keir Starmer had offered big US tech companies a reduction in the headline rate<\/a> of the DST to placate Trump, while at the same time applying the levy to companies from other countries.
Trump said on Monday: \u201cAmerica, and American technology companies, are neither the \u2018piggy bank\u2019 nor the \u2018doormat\u2019 of the world any longer. Show respect to America and our amazing tech companies or consider the consequences.\u201d
His warning comes a week after the US and the EU agreed in a joint statement that they would together \u201caddress unjustified trade barriers\u201d. However, the EU said separately that it had not committed to alter any digital regulations.
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In June, Canada scrapped its digital services tax, which Trump had described as a \u201cdirect and blatant\u201d attack, in an effort to smooth trade negotiations<\/a> with its neighbour.
Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, said the UK government should not kowtow to Trump\u2019s \u201cbullying\u201d tactics.
\u201cThe prime minister must rule out giving in to Donald Trump\u2019s bullying by watering down Britain\u2019s digital services tax,\u201d Davey said. \u201cTech tycoons like Elon Musk rake in millions off our online data and couldn\u2019t care less about keeping kids safe online. The last thing they need is a tax break. The way to respond to Trump\u2019s destructive trade war is to work with our allies to stand up to him.\u201d
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Levies and restrictions could hit UK\u2019s digital services tax and EU states such as France, Italy and SpainBusiness live \u2013 latest updatesDonald Trump has threatened to impose tariffs and export restrictions on countries whose taxes, legislation and regulations target US big tech companies such as Google, Meta, Amazon and Apple.In a post on his social […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":162119,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-162118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}