Trump Threatens Additional Tariffs For Countries With Digital Taxes

United States President Donald Trump (photo: x @WhiteHouse)

JAKARTA - United States President Donald Trump on Monday, August 25, threatened countries that implemented digital taxes with "substantive additional rates" replies. This tariff will be imposed on their export goods if these countries do not revoke the law.

Sources said the Trump administration was considering imposing sanctions on EU officials or its member states responsible for the implementation of the Digital Services Act that became a milestone in the bloc.

Many countries, especially in Europe, have taxed digital service provider sales revenues, including Alphabet's Google, Meta, Apple and Amazon's Facebook. This issue has been a prolonged trade issue for some US governments.

"With this statement, I warn all countries with Digital Tax, Law, Rules, or Regulations, that unless this discriminatory action is removed, I, as President of the United States, will impose significant additional rates on the country's exports to the US, and impose export restrictions on our highly protected technology and chips," Trump said in a social media post.

In the post, Trump claims that such legislation is "designed to harm or discriminate against American Technology" and grant flexibility to companies from US tech rivals, namely China.

Trump has previously threatened to impose tariffs on countries such as Canada and France over differences over digital service taxes.

In February, Trump ordered his trading chief to revive an investigation aimed at imposing tariffs on imports from countries imposing digital service taxes on US tech companies.