US Threatens to Raise Tariffs if UK Does Not Eliminate Digital Services Tax

JAKARTA - US President Donald Trump threatened to impose high import tariffs on the UK if Prime Minister Keir Starmer's government did not repeal the digital services tax.

Trump said the tax policy was judged to unfairly target American technology companies.

"We don't like it when they target American companies... If the tax is not lifted, we will likely impose large tariffs on the UK," Trump told reporters, as reported by Sputnik, Friday, April 24.

He stressed that his government was reviewing the tax, which was considered harmful to US technology giants such as Apple and Google.

Since 2020, Britain has imposed a two-percent tax on large multinational companies that derive revenue from social media, search engines, and online marketplaces.

The tax is imposed on companies with global digital revenues of more than 500 million pounds (around Rp10 trillion) and at least 25 million pounds (around Rp500 billion) coming from users in the UK.

Trump's statement was made ahead of King Charles III's visit to the United States next week.

Trump previously expressed his belief that the visit could help restore the special relationship between the two countries, which have recently been tense.