The United States has threatened to retaliate against European companies in response to the European Union’s imposition of a “digital tax” on major U.S. technology corporations.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) warned that if the EU and its member states persisted in restricting the competitiveness of U.S. service providers through discriminatory measures,” the United States would use every available tool to respond to what it described as “unreasonable actions.”
In its statement, the USTR named European companies such as Accenture, Siemens, Spotify, DHL Group, SAP, Amadeus IT Group, Capgemini, Publicis Groupe and Mistral AI as potential targets for new tariffs or restrictions.
The dispute centers on EU regulations governing the digital economy, as Brussels seeks to tax revenues earned in the European market by U.S. tech giants including Google (Alphabet), Meta, Amazon and Apple. Critics of the proposed “digital tax” in Washington argue that such measures undermine innovation and amount to unfair discrimination against American companies.
The standoff over the EU digital tax has dragged on for years, with the United States maintaining that the measures disproportionately target U.S. businesses.
Source: tovima.com
