Trump declares trade war on nations that impose taxes on US tech giants – THIS END

By Ayo Kehinde

US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose 100% tariffs on imports from any country that introduces a digital services tax (DST) aimed at American technology companies.

In a statement posted on his Truth Social platform on Friday, Trump warned that countries that introduce or maintain digital services taxes on U.S. tech companies will face immediate retaliatory tariffs on all goods exported to the United States.

“Any country that imposes such a tax will immediately have a 100% TARIFF applied to all goods sent to the United States of America,” Trump said, insisting that taxes on digital services unfairly isolate American businesses and undermine U.S. economic interests.

The latest warning is aimed primarily at several European countries that have adopted or are considering digital services taxes on tech multinationals such as Apple, Google, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft.

Washington has long argued that such taxes disproportionately target U.S.-based businesses, discriminating against American innovation.

Trump also said the 100% tariff proposal would replace existing and future trade agreements, signaling a more confrontational trade policy if countries proceed to tax revenue generated by U.S. tech giants within their borders.

France became the first major economy to introduce a tax on digital services in 2019, prompting repeated threats of retaliatory tariffs from Washington.

Other countries, including the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Austria and Canada, have implemented or proposed similar measures as negotiations continue within the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to establish a global framework for the taxation of multinational companies.

The OECD’s two-pillar international tax agreement is designed to reduce unilateral digital taxes by allocating a greater share of multinational profits to the countries where profits are earned, while establishing a global minimum corporate tax.

However, progress has remained uneven, leading several governments to maintain or revive their digital tax regimes.

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