Our Correspondent
European Union is prepared to impose taxes onUS tech giants if talks with President Donald Trump fail to bring down tariffs on European goods.
The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, told the Financial Times, that they are already developing retaliatory measures.
According to his Thursday statement, the measures include taxing the digital advertising revenues of companies like Meta, Google and Facebook.
“There’s a wide range of countermeasures… in case the negotiations are not satisfactory,” he said.
The EU said yesterday it would pause its retaliatory tariffs on the US for 90 days, a day after Trump also announced a 90-day pause on his “reciprocal” tariffs.
The bloc of 27 countries had been hit by three sets of US tariffs including 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum.
Others are 25% levies on cars and a 20% “reciprocal” tariff on all other goods.
Despite pausing the “reciprocal” tariff, Trump is still imposing a 10% tariff on dozens of trading partners, including the EU.
While the US tariffs have targeted foreign goods, the EU is particularly considering using a trade “bazooka” to hit American service companies – and tech giants.
Von der Leyen said the EU was “committed to constructive negotiations” with the US, but that its “countermeasures will kick in” if talks fail.
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