President Donald Trump said Friday that he would sign a memorandum to impose tariffs on countries that apply taxes to digital services on US technology companies.
A White House official, by providing details about the order, said that Trump was instructing his administration to consider actions in response, such as tariffs, “to combat taxes on digital services (DST), for its acronym in English), Fines, practices and political that foreign governments impose on US companies. ”
“President Trump will not allow foreign governments to appropriate the United States tax base for their own benefit,” said the official.
The Memorandum orders to the Office of the US Commercial Representative (USTT) to renew the investigations on taxes on digital services that began during Trump’s first mandate, and analyze any other country that uses a tax Digital “to discriminate against US companies,” added the official.
When asked in the White House if he would sign an order of tariffs on digital taxes, Trump told reporters: “We are going to do that, the digital. What they are doing to us in other countries is terrible with the digital, so we are going to announce it, maybe today. ”
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Last week, Trump said he would impose tariffs to Canada and France due to their taxes to digital services, and an informative sheet of the White House published at that time pointed out that “only the United States should be able to tax US companies.”
He complained that Canada and France used these taxes to raise more than 500 million dollars a year of US companies.
“In general, these non -reciprocal taxes cost US companies more than 2,000 million dollars a year. The reciprocal tariffs will return equity and prosperity to the distorted international trade system and prevent Americans from being exploited, ”said the information sheet. He did not provide more details.
An old conflict point
Taxes on digital services aimed at American technological giants such as Google de Alphabet, Meta, Apple and Amazon Facebook have been a source of commercial disputes for years.
United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Turkey, India, Austria and Canada have established these taxes, which apply to the income generated by digital services sold within its borders.
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The US commercial representative during Trump’s first mandate determined in his investigations that these taxes discriminated against US companies and prepared retaliation tariffs.
The head of commerce of President Joe Biden, Katherine Tai, in 2021 followed up to these investigations and announced 25% tariff A global tax agreement.
These negotiations led to a 15%minimum global corporate tax, which the EU Congress never ratified. Conversations on a second component, aimed at creating an alternative to digital taxes, have practically stagnated without reaching an agreement.
The first day of his mandate, Trump effectively withdrew the US of the global tax agreement with almost 140 countries, declaring that the 15% minimum global tax “has no force or effect in the United States” and ordering the US Treasury Department to prepare Options for “protection measures.”
A new Trump order could allow the reactivation of the retaliation tariffs of the USTR. These rates were designed to compensate for the amount of taxes to the digital services collected.
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In 2021, the USTr said it would impose tariffs of 25% on approximately 887 million dollars in goods from the United Kingdom, including clothing, footwear and cosmetics, and about approximately 386 million dollars in goods in Italy, including clothing, handbags and handbags and Optical lenses
At that time, the UST also said that it would impose tariffs on goods worth 323 million dollars from Spain, 310 million dollars from Turkey, 118 million dollars of India and 65 million dollars from Austria. In addition, the USTr suspended tariffs separately over 1.3 billion dollars in French cosmetics, handbags and other goods.
With Reuters information
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