US President Donald Trump has vowed to impose 100% import tariffs on any European country that imposes a digital services tax on US technology giants.
Writing on his Truth social platform, Trump said that “several European countries” were discussing introducing such a levy and some were close to doing so.
He warned that punitive penalties would be immediately imposed and any existing bilateral trade agreements would be completely “superseded”.
While the post targets countries planning “immediate implementation” of the new taxes, the exact implications for Britain were not immediately clear, given that such a tax has been in place in London since 2020.
He wrote, “Please let this statement reflect that any country that imposes such a tax will immediately impose a 100% tariff on any and all goods shipped to the United States.”
The UK’s 2% digital services tax (DST) applies to major search engines, social media platforms and online marketplaces whose global revenues from digital businesses exceed £500 million, and total UK revenues exceed £25 million.
According to the Treasury, this has impacted some of the largest US companies including Apple, Google, Meta and Amazon and raised more than £800 million in 2024-25, up from £678 million in 2023-24.
In April, Trump said the UK faced “huge tariffs” targeting major US companies with taxes.
“They think they’re going to make easy money, so they’ve taken advantage of our country,” Trump said at the time.
The Department for Business and Trade and the Treasury have been contacted for comment.
Trump’s threat of retaliation against European countries that plan to introduce or revise their own taxes comes just days after the US and EU’s final decision., externalsigned a new trade agreement, external.
Michael Damianos, Minister of Energy, Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Cyprus, said at the time that “the EU can react swiftly and proportionately when the agreement is not respected or its interests are at stake”.
France, Italy and Spain also impose a digital services tax of 3% on large companies operating in their countries, and several other EU countries have implemented or proposed it., external A flat tax, according to the Tax Foundation, a nonprofit group that focuses on tax policy.
Earlier this year, Amazon increased its fees on sellers, external Citing such taxes.
Since becoming president again in 2025, Trump has attempted to impose major tariffs on many countries.
In February, the US Supreme Court rejected Trump’s first attempt to impose a global tariff of 10%.
Nevertheless, the US recently announced new tariffs of 10-12.5% on dozens of countries responsible for almost all of its imports, claiming that such countries are not doing enough to combat forced labour.