U.S. President Donald Trump meets with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, in Turnberry, Scotland, Britain, July 27, 2025.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
President Donald Trump vowed Monday to impose “substantial” new tariffs and restrict U.S. chip exports for all countries that do not remove digital taxes and related regulations.
Trump wrote on Truth Social that digital services taxes, or DSTs — which are currently imposed by dozens of countries — “are all designed to harm, or discriminate against, American Technology.”
“I put all Countries with Digital Taxes, Legislation, Rules, or Regulations, on notice that unless these discriminatory actions are removed, I, as President of the United States, will impose substantial additional Tariffs on that Country’s Exports to the U.S.A.,” Trump wrote.
He added that the U.S. would also “institute Export restrictions on our Highly Protected Technology and Chips.”
“Show respect to America and our amazing Tech Companies or, consider the consequences!” Trump wrote.
Trump has long sought to pressure U.S. trade partners into dropping the taxes, which are typically structured to apply only to the world’s largest and most established tech companies, like Meta, Alphabet and Amazon. They also happen to be American companies.
Digital service taxes have already proven to be a potential make-or-break issue for Trump in his administration’s ongoing trade negotiations.
In June, he declared that he would cut off all trade talks with Canada over the tax.
When Ottawa quickly rescinded its tax just before it was set to turn on, the White House crowed that Canada had “caved” to pressure.
Digital services taxes like Canada’s have generated some bipartisan criticism in the United States, home of most of the major tech firms that are subject to the levies.
In 2023, the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee jointly warned the U.S. trade representative that Ottawa’s tax would subject “innovative American companies to arbitrary discrimination.”
The countries which enact digital services taxes, however, argue that massive tech titans like Amazon operate within their borders and generate huge profits from their citizens while paying little or no taxes to the respective governments.
