President Donald Trump on Friday threatened to impose an immediate 100% tariff on goods imported from any country that levies a digital services tax on American companies, escalating pressure on European nations days after the EU ratified a trade agreement with the United States. In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote that 'numerous European countries' had been discussing putting a digital services tax on American companies and that 'some of these countries are close to actually doing this' [Source: The Guardian]. He added that any country proceeding with such a tax 'will immediately be met with a 100% tariff on any and all goods sent to the United States' [Source: CBS News].
Trump stated that the tariff would supersede trade deals made with the country, 'whether implemented, signed, or not' [Source: CNBC]. The threat lands at a sensitive moment in transatlantic trade relations. The EU on Thursday approved the tariff cuts it had committed to under its trade agreement with the United States, following months of internal wrangling. Digital services taxes were not part of that agreement and have remained a sticking point between Washington and the European bloc. Trump has separately set a July 4 deadline for the EU and the US to finalise an arrangement capping tariffs on most EU exports at 15%.
Digital services taxes are typically structured to apply only to the world's largest and most established technology companies — firms such as Meta Platforms (META), Alphabet (GOOGL) and Amazon (AMZN), all of which are US-headquartered. More than a dozen countries have already imposed such levies. France, Denmark and Portugal have digital services tax measures in place, while Britain has since 2020 levied a 2% tax on revenues earned by search engines, social media sites and online marketplaces that derive value from UK users.
The legal basis for the threat is not settled. It is unclear which legal authority would allow Trump to immediately impose such tariffs on individual European countries. White House officials suggested that a tariff response to European digital services taxes would be filed under Section 301 of the Trade Act [Source: Washington Examiner]. The question of legal standing carries added weight given that many of Trump's previous tariffs were ruled illegal by the Supreme Court in February, with replacement levies requiring lengthy investigations before they could be imposed.
The current threat follows a pattern of US pressure on this issue. In August 2025, Trump threatened new tariffs on any country that imposed a digital tax, describing such taxes and regulations as intended to weaken US companies. Earlier, in 2020, the US Trade Representative launched investigations into nine EU countries that had adopted or were considering digital taxes. Trump also vowed last year to cut off all trade talks with Canada over its own proposed version of the tax; Ottawa subsequently scrapped the levy shortly before it was set to come into effect.
Sources: Bloomberg, The Guardian, CBS News, CNBC, MSN, Washington Examiner, PBS NewsHour