The UK could be subjected to new tariffs if it doesn’t stop taxing American tech giants, U.S. President Donald Trump warned in Oval Office remarks late Thursday. President Trump said: “they better be careful. If they don’t drop the tax, we’ll probably put a big tariff on the UK.”
Keeping the tax on U.S. tech giants wouldn’t be worthwhile, Trump said, because “What we’ll do is we’ll reciprocate by putting something on that’s equal or greater than what they’re doing”.
The UK digital services tax imposes a two per cent levy on relevant activity of large digital companies active in the social media, internet search, and online marketplace spaces. The British government argues that these companies make significant profits from operating in the United Kingdom, but would do so without contributing to the social good of the country that creates the conditions for them to operate if some sort of tax wasn’t levied.