DONALD Trump has threatened to slap the UK with hefty 100 per cent tariffs if it imposes a controversial tech tax on American companies.
The US president also fumed that any existing trade deals with Downing Street won’t matter if No10 decides to put a levy on US social media firms.
Trump has previously blasted the UK’s Digital Services Tax (DST), accusing it of unfairly “targeting” US firms.
But he has now vowed to strike any nation imposing such a tax with huge 100 per cent tariffs.
President Trump said on Truth Social: “Numerous European Countries have been discussing the imminent implementation of a Digital Services Tax on American Companies.
“Some of these Countries are close to actually doing this.
“Please let this statement serve to represent that any Country that imposes such a Tax will immediately be met with a 100% TARIFF on any and all Goods sent to the United States of America.
“This TARIFF will supersede Trade Deals made with the Country, whether implemented, signed, or not.
“Additionally, the 100% TARIFF will be immediately imposed, if they proceed.”
The DST is a two per cent levy on large US platforms operating in Britain.
Every year the tax rakes in around £800million for the UK government.
Introduced in 2020, the tax has been a point of contention for years with Washington repeatedly criticising it as punitive towards American firms.
Trump previously threatened the UK with a “big tariff” in April if they didn’t scrap the levy.
The US president said earlier this year: “We don’t like it when they target American companies because basically you’re talking about our great American companies.
“We can meet that very easily by just putting a big tariff on the UK, so they better be careful.”
It comes after French President Emmanuel Macron said France would not bow to pressure from Trump and scrap its digital tax on US tech giants last week.
Trump had warned that the US would “have no choice” but to apply 100 per cent tariffs on French wine unless Paris eliminated its digital tax.
France has applied a 3 per cent levy since 2019 on revenue from digital services earned by companies with revenues of more than £20million in the country and £650million worldwide.
Leave a comment