President Donald Trump said Friday that his administration would launch a trade investigation into the European Union, rescinding steep fines imposed on U.S. tech giants and likely imposing “substantial” tariffs on 27 member countries.
In a lengthy post on Truth Social, President Trump was outraged by the recent $1 billion fine imposed by the European Union, accusing it of “‘robbing’ American companies and, in turn, ‘robbing’ American taxpayers.” google The company is said to have given priority to its own services in search engines.
“The European Union is once again taking direct aim at great American companies, as always!” Trump also slammed past fines from Europe in his post. apple, Meta and Amazon.
President Trump claimed that the latest fine against Google was given “without explanation.” However, the EU’s executive arm, the European Commission, said in a press release that the fines, totaling 890 million euros, were due to Google’s alleged breaches of EU digital market laws aimed at scrutinizing the practices of Big Tech companies.
President Trump insisted that the EU’s actions “will not continue during the Trump administration.”
“The United States is not Europe’s ‘piggy bank’ and we will not allow it to be!” he wrote.
President Trump said the U.S. would begin an investigation “immediately” under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which allows tariffs to be imposed for practices deemed to unduly burden U.S. commerce.
The Trump administration has used its tariff powers to launch multiple investigations. Hours earlier, it imposed new tariffs of 10% to 12.5% on goods from more than 80 countries, including EU member states, over suspected forced labor issues.
“The European Union will pay a very high price for this illegal and deeply unethical action, which I have consistently warned about,” Trump warned in a post Friday.
“We expect penalties to be fully lifted and significant tariffs to be imposed as soon as possible,” he wrote, adding, “Stay tuned!”
