- Digital service taxes a longstanding trade irritant for US
- Countries including France, Canada, UK have DSTs
- White House says it will scrutinize EU tech regulations
President Donald Trump on Friday ordered his trade chief to revive investigations aimed at imposing tariffs on imports from countries that levy digital service taxes on U.S. technology companies.
A White House official, providing details of the order, said Trump was directing his administration to consider responsive actions like tariffs “to combat the digital service taxes (DSTs), fines, practices, and policies that foreign governments levy on American companies.”
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The memo directs the U.S. Trade Representative’s office to renew digital service taxes investigations that were initiated during Trump’s first term, and investigate any additional countries that use a digital tax “to discriminate against U.S. companies,” according to a White House fact sheet.
Don’t they (US) stand to loose more if digital service taxes get really implemented? The current version is quite small and symbolic. Other countries introduced this on a small scale but would all benefit from building their own digital service ecosystem shielded from the US competition: it didn’t happen at scale not to break overall business with the US but if the business is breaking anyway…