President Donald Trump on Friday threatened to impose “100% tariffs” on products from countries that impose a digital services tax on U.S. companies.
“These tariffs supersede any trade agreements we have with this country, whether implemented or signed,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
He added that these duties would be “immediately imposed” if countries move forward with their digital tax plans.
President Trump has previously vowed to retaliate against countries that impose digital services taxes, accusing them of unfairly targeting U.S. tech giants. President Trump vowed last year to end all trade talks with Canada over his own tax proposal. Ottawa then repealed the levy just before it took effect.
Digital services taxes are typically structured to apply only to the world’s largest and most established technology companies, such as U.S. companies Meta, Alphabet and Amazon.
More than a dozen countries have imposed digital services taxes. In a post Friday afternoon, President Trump named “many European countries” as considering taxes.
It is unclear which law would give President Trump the authority to immediately impose huge tariffs on countries.
The Supreme Court struck down President Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs that sought to impose separate tariffs on nearly every country. The high court has ruled that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not give the Trump administration the authority to unilaterally impose broad global tariffs.
Hours after that defeat, President Trump announced that he had signed an executive order imposing new 10% tariffs worldwide under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974. However, the tariffs created under the law would only last for 150 days, and any extension would require Congressional approval.
