Lates News

The US government is threatening retaliation against the European Union in response to its taxation of American technology companies, specifically mentioning Accenture, Siemens, and Spotify as potential targets for new restrictions or fees. The US Trade Representative's office stated on Tuesday: "If the EU and its member states continue to restrict, restrain, and weaken American service providers' competitiveness through discriminatory means, the US will have no choice but to use all available tools to counter these unfair measures." "If necessary, the US law allows for charging fees or imposing restrictions on foreign services, as well as other measures." The dispute centers around digital trade regulations, with the EU moving forward with regulating and taxing US tech giants such as Google, Meta, and Amazon. American officials have accused the EU of violating terms of trade agreements with the US, particularly the EU's commitment to "address unreasonable barriers to digital trade." Trump has repeatedly criticized such measures as non-tariff trade barriers that harm US companies and has threatened to impose "substantial" tariffs on countries implementing these measures. However, the EU continues to push forward with enforcement of its digital regulations, recently issuing fines worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Apple, Meta, and companies under Elon Musk's X umbrella.