Brussels may goal American “digital companies” if tariff talks collapse, in accordance with Ursula von der Leyen
The European Union is ready to impose bloc-wide tariffs on main US tech firms, comparable to Meta and Google, if negotiations with Washington fail to resolve the escalating commerce dispute, European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen has warned.
Following President Donald Trump’s resolution to pause additional tariff hikes for 90 days, EU exports to the US will nonetheless face a “baseline” 10% import obligation as a substitute of deliberate 20% below his new commerce regime. Nonetheless, the European Fee introduced it could quickly droop its countermeasures pending additional negotiations.
Chatting with the Monetary Occasions on Thursday, von der Leyen mentioned Brussels was able to deploy its strongest commerce measures, doubtlessly focusing on American digital service suppliers and the promoting revenues of Silicon Valley giants.
“We’re creating retaliatory measures,” von der Leyen mentioned, including that these may embrace the primary use of the EU’s anti-coercion mechanism to hit companies fairly than items. “There’s a variety of countermeasures… in case the negotiations will not be passable.”
“An instance is you can put a levy on the promoting revenues of digital companies,” she added, outlining a measure that may apply throughout the bloc’s whole single market – on prime of digital gross sales taxes set individually by member states.
Whereas the EU stays dedicated to looking for a “utterly balanced” settlement throughout Trump’s 90-day tariff freeze, von der Leyen made clear that Brussels wouldn’t hesitate to behave if talks fail. The Fee can also be contemplating tariffs on US scrap steel exports, in addition to protecting measures to stop Chinese language items – focused by prohibitive 145% US tariffs – from flooding European markets.
Von der Leyen described Trump’s tariff struggle as a “turning level” for world commerce, saying there could be no return to the “establishment” between the EU and the US. She claimed that Brussels had tried to barter with Washington in latest months however was advised to attend till Trump’s April 2 announcement, which imposed a 20% “reciprocal” tariff on the EU.
Whereas each side have agreed that reform of the World Commerce Group (WTO) is required, von der Leyen warned that the financial chaos unleashed by Trump’s tariffs was already inflicting heavy prices on world markets.
“There are not any winners on this, solely losers,” she mentioned. “Immediately we see the price of chaos… the prices of the uncertainty that we’re experiencing at present will probably be heavy.”
Von der Leyen confirmed that the EU would pause its deliberate retaliation towards US metal and aluminum tariffs in the course of the negotiations however burdened that Brussels wouldn’t negotiate over its “untouchable” guidelines on digital content material, market energy, and different “sovereign selections.” The bloc additionally won’t negotiate over value-added tax (VAT), which US officers – together with Trump – by some means deem “discriminatory” towards American exporters, regardless that each imported and regionally produced items are taxed equally.
